ON THE MIGRATION OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 329 
potato is given the epithet ** Irish." At present, the Spaniards call the 
sweet potato batata or batata de Malaga, and the common potato 
patata, a mere change of one labial for another. The last is nearly our 
own name, and its source is therefore obvious. The original word is 
probably a native American one, but of what language I have not 
eard. The common potato had probably many native names, cor- 
responding with the many’tongues of America, for it was found by the 
discoverers cultivated both in North and South America. Whatever 
the origin of the name, the term is, at all events, better than the 
* earth-apple " of the French and Germans, or the “ white truffle ” 
of the Italians. In Hindustan, where the potato is now successfully 
cultivated, chiefly for European consumption, the name given to it is 
balaiti alu, or the “ European esculent tuber." The Malays give it the 
name of «bi Furopa, that is, the “‘ European Yam,” and the Javanese 
that of kdntang Holanda, or “tubers of Holland," the sdntang being 
the name of the Ocymum tuberosum, or tuber-yielding basil, a plant 
cultivated in Java for its tubers, which in flavour bear a considerable 
resemblance to those of the Solanum. 
Sago, correctly sagu, is simply the name of the prepared pith of the 
palms which yield it, and has no reference to any particular palm, of 
which there are not fewer than five distinct species of the genus. The 
word, probably of the Malay language, is of universal use throughout 
the Malay and Philippine archipelagoes, and has long been adopted in 
the languages of Europe. 
The Breadfruit (4rtocarpus incisa) is known in the Malay archipe- 
lago (according to the language of the country) under the various 
names of sukun, kluwi, kulor, and tambul, but none of these are the 
names which it bears in the tropical islands of the Pacific; and hence 
we may conclude that the South-Sea Islanders are not indebted for it 
to the Malayan nations, as they are for some other cultivated products 
such as the Yam, the Cocoa-nut Palm, and the Sugar-cane. This is, 
indeed, what may be inferred, without the help of etymology, from the 
character of the plant, which is of the size of a forest tree, with perishable 
fruit, and consequently impossible of distant transport by a rude people. 
us to the Pacific Islands, where alone 
The plant is; no doubt, indigeno 
it sports into several varieties, which have been reckoned as many 
as five [thirty, Ep.], a proof of long cultivation. Even the name 
given to the breadfruit is not universal in all the dialects of the Poly- 
