182 
bruised, shipped or even stored damp, become rancid ; and experts 
intain that they can distinguish oil-cake made from this source 
by the abundance of fungal threads in it. 
Ground-nut seeds do not require much moisture to stimulate 
9c, 20) 
The great precautions necessary to prevent growth in seeds 
reserved for sowing will be mentioned under the head of cultiva- 
tion. There is reason why the same precautions should not be 
neglected in the cage of seed destined for the oil-mill, 
ORIGIN AND DISPERSAL. 
That Arachis hypogea is of South American origin admits of 
no doubt. riters of fifty years ago, not as abundantly provided 
the Indians knew and grew the plant, and one-—Oviedo, who was 
a director of mines in Cuba from 1513 to 1524—says that it was 
conquest of Peru, no seed except that of the maize is more 
abundant (Rochebrune in Actes Soc. Linn. Bordeaux, ser. 4, 
iii., p. $50), 
The French colonists sent by Admiral Coligny to the Brazilian 
coast became acquainted with it in 1555, and Jean de Léry 
described it unmistakably. 
Ficalho (Plantas Uteis da Africa Portugueza, Lisbon, 1884, 
p. 136) shows that the first distinct mention of its cultivation in 
Afri ré Alvares de Almada who published in 1594 an 
earlier. was by him in considerable quantity in the 
Archipelago of Bujagoz (Bissagos). Po 7 * 
sixteenth century we 
