;^j 



, 



Voyage to Virginia/ 5 p. 7 (1602), " in every island and every part 

 of every island are great store of ground-nuts, iortie together on 

 a string, some of tliein as bigges as Hennes egges," and Denys, 

 "I)6ser. Geogr. et hist, des Costes de FAmerique stpten- 

 trionale/' II., p. 350 (1672) describing the ground-nuts sa\ s, 

 " elles s'appellent des Chicamins" which is apparently a variant 

 of Pere Biard's Chiquebi. The Monardes referred to was a 

 Spanish physician (1493-1588) author of the Historia medicinal 

 de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias occidentals, que 

 sirven en medicina (1569). His work naturally contains no 

 reference to Helianthus tuberosum, but in Colin's French transla- 

 tion with additions, published in 1619, as liistoire des simples 

 medicamens apportes de l'Amerique des quels on se sert en la 

 medecine, we read at p. 198: " Depuis quelques annees en 5a 

 nous avons recouvert une plante qui, a bon droit, doit etre mise 

 au rang des herbes du Soleil ; le vulgaii e l'appelle Truft'e du 

 Canada; on dit qu'elle a ete apportee de la . . . . Cette plante 

 provigne de telle sorte qu'on s'en sert au lieu de glands et chas- 

 taignes, pour engraisser le bet ail et les pourceaux. Nous 

 9 1'appelerons dbncques Herba solis tuberosa radice, et fion 



1 prolifera." Here we have the first importation clearly claimed 



for the French in the words " nous avons recouvert, " and the 



use of the tubers for fattening cattle and pigs implies that they 



I must have been in cultivation for a certain number of years, 



which would be quite in accord with their having come over with 

 Lescarbot in 1607. 



The supposed first introduction of Helianthus tuberosus by 

 Cardinal Farnese having been rejected in favour of the French, 

 it remains to consider whether any claim can be made on behalf 



■ 



of the Low Countries. The first to grow them there was Petrus 

 Hondius, known from the mention of him by van Itavelinghen 

 and by Lauremberg, referred to below, as a mighty gardener who 

 lived in Zeeland at Terneuzen (otherwise Neuzen) near the mouth 

 of the Lys canal on the southern shore of the Hond, or western 

 branch of the estuarv of the Scheldt. His latinised name is 

 obviously taken from that of the estuary. 



Dodoens, who died in 1585, and Lobel, whose latest publica- 

 tion is of 1605, though he lived till 1616, know nothing of the 

 Jerusalem Artichoke. Nor does Gaspard Pelletier of Montpellier 

 in his very rare* " Plantarum turn patriarum turn exoticarum 11 

 Walachria,f Zeelandiae insula nascentium synonym a," published 

 at Middelburg in 1610. make any allusion to it. But Joost van 

 Ravelinghen's 1618 edition of Dodoens' Cruydt-Boeck contains 

 an appendix^ of exotic plants not mentioned by Dodoens. There 

 at pp. 1475, 1476, is a long account of Helianthus tuberosus under 

 the name of Batatas van Canada of Articioclen onder d'aerde 



* The only copy I can trace in England is at Kew. 



W; 



$" Beschriivinghe van de Indiaensche oft Wtlandtsche Bo&rnen, Heeteren 

 enie Oruyden .... die van Dodonasus met vermaent oft niet beschreven 

 en zijn gheweest." This appendix with identical paging is also included in 

 Moretus' edition of 1644. As the old Dutch is rather crabbed the quotations 

 below are in English, for which I have to thank the Kev. George Edmundsoiu 



