PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SEEDS. 351 



origin. Roxburgh and Hamilton had not seen it in 

 Northern India in the beginning of this century, and I 

 find no indication of it in China and Japan. 



It is undoubtedly wild in Tartary and Siberia, as far 

 as Dauria;^ but Russian botanists have not found it 

 further east, in the basin of the river Amur.^ 



As this plant came from Tartary into Eastern Europe 

 later than the common, buckwheat, it is the latter which 

 bears in several Slav languages the names tatrika, tatarka, 

 or tattar, which would better suit the Tartary buck- 

 wheat. 



It seems that the Aryan peoples must have known 

 the species, and yet no name is mentioned in the ancient 

 Indo-European languages. No trace of it has hitherto 

 been found in the lake-dwellings of Switzerland or of 

 Savoy. 



Notch-seeded Buckwheat — Polygonum emarginatumn, 

 Roth ; Fagopyrwin emarginatum, Meissner. 



This third species of buckwheat is grown in the high- 

 lands of the north-east of India, under the name phajHiTa 

 or phaphar,^ and in China.* I find no positive proof that 

 it has been found wild. Roth only says that it " inhabits 

 China," and that the grain is used for food. Don,^ who 

 was the first of Anglo-Indian botanists to mention it, 

 says that it is hardly considered wild. It is not men- 

 tioned in floras of the Amur valley, nor of Japan. 

 Judging from the countries where it is cultivated, it is 

 probably wild in the Eastern Himalayas and the north- 

 west of China. 



The genus Fagopyrum has eight species, all of tem- 

 perate Asia. 



Quinoa — Cheiiopodiiim quinoa, Willdenow. 



The quinoa was a staple food of the natives of New 

 Granada, Peru, and Chili, in the high and temperate 

 parts at the time of the conquest. Its cultivation has 



* Gmelin, Flora Sihirica, iii. p. 64 ; Ledebour, Fl. Rossica, in. p. 576. 

 ^ Maximowicz, PrimiticB ; Eegel, Opit. Flori, etc.; Schmidt, Reisen in 



Amur, do not mention it. 



3 Royle, III. Himal., p. 317 ; Madden, Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin., r. p. 118. 



* Roth, Cafalecta Botanica, i. p. 48. 



* Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal., p. 74. 



