PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SUBTERRANEAN PARTS. 53 



my herbarmm an(i in that of M. Boissier. None of 

 these Solanacete belong, in my opinion, to >S^. tuberosum, 

 although that of La Union, near the river Cauca, comes 

 nearer than the rest. None — and this is yet more certain 

 — answers to S. immite of Dunal. They are nearer to 

 S. columhianum of the same author than to S. tuberoswni 

 or S. mimite. The specimen from Mount Quindio presents 

 a singular characteristic — it has pointed ovoid berries.^ 



In Mexico the tuberous Solanums attributed to 

 S. tuberosum, or, according to Hemsley,^ to allied forms, 

 do not appear to be identical with the cultivated plant. 

 They belong to S. Fendleri, which Dr. Asa Gray con- 

 sidered at first as a separate species, and afterwards^ 

 as a variety of S. tuberosum or of S. verrucosum. 



We may sum up as follows : — 



1. The potato is wild in Chili, in a form which is 

 still seen in our cultivated plants. 



2. It is very doubtful whether its natural home 

 extends to Peru and New Granada. 



3. Its cultivation was diffused before the discovery 

 of America from Chili to New Granada. 



4. It was introduced, probably in the latter half of 

 the sixteenth century, into that part of the United 

 States now known as Virginia and North Carolina. 



5. It was imported into Europe between 1580 and 

 1585, first by the Spaniards, and afterwards by the 

 English, at the time of Raleigh's voyages to Virginia.* 



Batata, or Sweet Potato — Convolvulus batatas, Lin- 

 naeus ; Batatas edulis, Choisy. 



The roots of this plant, swelled into tubers, resemble 

 potatoes, whence it arose that sixteenth-century navi- 

 gators applied the same name to these two very different 

 species. The sweet potato belongs to the Convolvulus 

 family, the potato to the Solanum family ; the fleshy 



^ The form of the berries in S. columhianum and S. immite is not yet 

 known. 



' Hemsley, Journal Hort. Soc, new series, vol. v. 



■ Asa Gray, Synoptical Flora of North America, ii. }i. 227. 



* See, for the successive introduction into the different parts of 

 Europe, Clos, Quelques Documents sur VHistoire de la Pomme da 

 Terre, in 8vo, 1874, in Journal d'Arjric. Pratiq. du Midi de la France. 



