ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
me is tea 2, 2 
OF 
MISCELLANKOUS INFORMATION, 
Nos. 178—180.] OCTOBER—DECEMBER. (1901. 
I—GROUND-NUT, OR PEA-NUT. 
(Arachis hypogea Linn.) 
Arachis hypogea is a amen unknown in the wild state. There 
is no knowledge to be recorded of its early history. How it came 
into cultivation haane: now be traced. That America gave the 
race birth is beyond doubt, and it is clear that in the sixteenth 
century Africa and Asia received it. Since then it has spread, so 
that the area of its extension is now over the whole of the tropics, 
and ree a large part of the temperate regions suited to the vine 
Wherever grown its richly oily seeds serve as a 1, an 
the last 60 years it has obtained a wide use in Europe as an oil- 
see 
Many small controversies have arisen over Arachis, and many 
misunderstandings of the plant. The origin of the plant, the sexes 
of its flowers, the nodules of the root, have been among the 
causes. The calyx-tube has been a fruitful source of mistake, and 
the origin of the name Arachis is hopelessly obscure 
DESCRIPTION. 
The genus Arachis is a peculiar one of the large order Legumi- 
nose, in which it belongs te the sub-order Papilionacee. All the 
known wild species of Arachis inhabit Tropical South ee taghiocs 
and doubtless the largest member of the genus, 4. hy iis Fo 
worked up by the cultivation of centuries in the hom f the 
race. io is a clover-like plant; indeed, a field of it “foreibly 
ant ty) 
stems may at 
height of 1 to 2 feet, or at times of 3 feet, but for the most part 
lie more or less prostrate on the soi t is the custom in the 
United States to plant the rows 25 to 3 feet apart, _— the 
branches ultimately meeting have a ‘length of nearly 2 fee 
The leaf of Avachis has four leaflets placed in ae each 
i h mmon leaf- 
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pair folding together at nightfall and remaining thus until dawn 
1375 Wt89 2/06 D&S 29 23793 
