128 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



the native country of the potato, we gladly quote the 

 following account by Mr Cruickshanks :* 



' Mr Lambert, in the tenth volume of Brande's 

 Journal, and in the appendix to his splendid work 

 on the genus Pinus, has collected many valuable 

 facts which prove that the potato is found wild in 

 several parts of America, and among others in Chili 

 and Peru. Don Jose Pavon, in a letter to Mr Lam- 

 bert, says, " The Solanum tuberosum grows wild in 

 the environs of Lima, and fourteen leagues from 

 Lima on the coast ; and I myself have found it in 

 the kingdom of Chili," and Mr Lambert adds, f( I 

 have lately received from Mr Pavon very fine wild 

 specimens of Solanum tvberonun, collected by him- 

 self in Peru." There is also a note from Mr Lam- 

 bert on the same subject, in the third volume of the 

 New Edin. Phil. Journ., with an extract from a 

 letter of Mr Caldcleugh, who sent tubers of the wild 

 plant> some years ago, from Chili to the Horticul- 

 tural Society. But it is frequently objected, that in 

 some of those countries where the potato is found 

 wild, it may, like many other species met with in 

 that state in America, be an introduced, not an indi- 

 genous plant. There are, however many reasons 

 for believing that it is really indigenous in Chili, and 

 that wild specimens found there have not been acci- 

 dentally propagated from any cultivated variety. In 

 that country it is generally found in steep, rocky 

 places, where it could never have been cultivated, 

 and where its accidental introduction is almost im- 

 possible. It is very common about Valparaiso, and 

 I have noticed it along the coast for fifteen leagues 

 to the northward of that port ; how much farther 



* Originally published in Dr Hooker's ' Botanical Miscella- 

 ny,' and quoted in the ' Journal of the Royal Institution,' for 

 December, 1831. 



