330 



(underground artichokes). We thence learn amongst other 

 matters : (1) that Petrus Hondius was the first to describe the 

 plant fully: (2) that the tubers had been planted, apparently by 

 Petrus Hondius, at least as early as February, 1613; (3) that van 

 Ravel ingh en knew them to come from Canada; (4) that he was 

 acquainted with the mention of them in Lescarbot's Histoire de 

 la Xouvelle France. The most important passages run: "The 

 young tubers are of various form, to wit, some round, some oval, 

 some flat, some oblong like pears .... and with such fecundity 

 that their multiplication in propagation is so great as to cause 

 astonishment to the very learned Petrus Hondius, who was the 

 first to give a full description of this plant." . . . "One of the 

 tubers, half -withered and without sap, not larger than a small 

 chestnut, stuck in the ground on the 28th of February, 1613, 

 had on the 13th November of the same year eleven roots, the 

 smallest of which was twice as large as the mother/' . . . , . 

 " This plant was first brought to this country from the French 

 Indies that are called Canada, although it does not multiply its 

 roots there so much as here, nevertheless here it does not bloom, 

 except when the summers are hot and there is a long drought. 

 The right name of this plant is unknown to us, but Petrus 

 Hondius calls it Artichoke under Ihe ground, in Latin Chrysan- 

 themum Canadense tuberosum edule. Others call it Batatas 

 Canadense, that is Batatas of Canada ; others Flos Solis Cana- 

 densis, or -Herb a solis tuberosa radice, that is Sunflower with 

 tuberous roots from Canada; others Helenitwn Canadense, or Solis 

 herba Canadensis; others Heliotronium Indicum tuberosum] in 

 our speech Artichoke-apples of Ter-Neusen, or Knobs, Tubers or 

 Hundred-heads, because the describer of New France held the 

 same for Asphodelus Plinii. The inhabitants of Canada eat 

 these roots as a dainty though common dish/' Thus we have an 

 earlier date for their cultivation in the Low Countries than that 

 of Colonna's mention of them in the Farnese gardens. 



The next allusion is in La u rem berg's " Apparatus Plantarum 

 primus," published at Frankfort-on-the-Mnin in 1632. Attention 

 was called to the passage, which at first sight seems all important, 

 bv Rchleehtendal in Bot. Zeit. xvi., p. 118 (1858), but as van 

 Eavelinghen's account had escaped his notice, he wrongly 

 supposes Lauremberg to be the only author who mentions Petrus 



Hondius. Lauremberg Bays, p. 131, u Adenes Canadense*, sen 



Flos solis glandule su s appellamus plantain novam, a paterno solo, 

 Canada, quae est American provincia, unde prirnum ante annos 

 triginta, aut i irciter, in "Rataviam transvecta fuit." Then he 

 enumerates the same set of synonyms that we have already found 

 in Eavclinghen and proceeds, " Artisrholappeln van fer Neusen : 



quia Petrus Hondius in praedio suo ter Netisen primus has 

 glandes, turn ex America ad vena e excepit ; turn in hart is suis 

 educavit : turn a se transmissas ad amicos, communes reddidit 

 toti Germaniae, imo Europae." Now, if this statement were 

 reliable, and the tubers had reallv been brought from Canada to 

 Holland thirty years before 1632. i.e., in 1602, that would 

 certainly be their earliest introduction, and it would take the 

 wind out of the sails of the French as well as of Cardinal Farnese ; 



