OF THE POTATOE PLANT. 11 



port ; how much further it may extend north or south, he 

 knows not.' "* 



(43.) Caldcleugh, who had been some time resident at 

 Rio Janeiro, holding the office of secretary to the British 

 minister, brought with him two tubers of the wild potatoe, 

 which he sent to the secretary of the Horticultural Society 

 of London, with the following letter, which is to be found 

 at p. 249 in the fifth volume of the Transactions of the 

 Society. 



(44.) " ' It is with no small degree of pleasure that I am 

 enabled to send you some specimens of the Solanum tubt- 

 rosum, or native wild potatoe of South America. It is 

 found growing in considerable quantities in ravines in the 

 immediate neighborhood of Valparaiso, on the western side 

 of South America, in lat. 34^ south. The leaves and 

 flowers of the plant are similar in every respect to those 

 cultivated in England and elsewhere. It begins to flower 

 in the month of October, the spring of that climate, and is 

 not very prolific. The roots are small, and of a bitterish 

 taste, some with red, and others with yellowish skins, I 

 am inclined to think that this plant grows on a large extent 

 of the coast, for in the south of Chili it is found, and is 

 called by the natives maglia, but I cannot discover that it 

 is employed to any purpose. I am indebted for these 

 specimens to an officer of his Majesty's ship Owen Glen- 

 dower, who left the country some time after me.' 



(45.) " The two tubers were exhibited to the Society, 

 and a drawing made of them before they were planted 

 (plate ix., fig. 2, Hort. Trans., vol. 5). Had there been 

 a third, I should have been tempted to have satisfied my- 



* Hooker's Botanical Miscellany, as quoted in the Journal of the 

 Royal Institution, 1831. 



