10 ON THE INDIVIDUALITY 



and in the declivity of the Andes, from the 5 north to the 

 12 south, and informed ourselves from persons who have 

 examined this chain of colossal mountains as far as the Le 

 Pan and Oruro, and we ascertained that in this vast extent 

 of ground no species of solanum with nutritive roots vege- 

 tates spontaneously. It is true that there are places not 

 very accessible, and very cold, which the natives call 

 ' Parana de las Papas.' ' 



(40.) Passing further southward beyond the tropics, we 

 find that, according to Molina, in the fields of Chili, the 

 natives distinguish the wild potatoe, of which the tubers 

 are small and somewhat bitter, from that which has been 

 cultivated for a long series of years. 



(41.) Meyer observes, that "if the potatoe had migrated 

 from Chili to Peru, it would probably have retained its 

 Chilian name ; but this conjecture is no longer necessary, 

 for it grows wild in both countries. I myself have found it 

 in two different places on the Cordilleras of these countries." 

 Jenin and Pavon mention the mountain of Chancay as a 

 station where the potatoe is to be found wild. 



(42.) "Don Jose Pavon, in a letter to M. Lambert, 

 says that Solanum tuberosum grows wild in the en- 

 virons of Lima, and fourteen leagues from Lima on the 

 coast; and I myself have found it in the kingdom of 

 of Chili. And M. Lambert adds, ' I have lately re- 

 ceived from M. Pavon very fine wild specimens of 

 Solanum tuberosum collected by himself in Peru. In 

 Chili it is generally found in steep rocky places, where it 

 could never have been cultivated, and where its introduc- 

 tion must have been almost impossible. It is very com- 

 mon about Valparaiso, and Cruickshank has noticed it 

 along the coast for fifteen leagues to the northward of that 



