sturtevant's notes on edible plants 59 



A. monostachyon Linn. f. 



Tropical eastern Asia. The natives relish the small tubers as an article of diet ; they 

 are said to be as good as potatoes, and are esteemed a great deUcacy.' 



Aporosa lindleyana Baill. Euphorbiaceae. 



East Indies. The small, berry-Hke fruit is edible.^ 



Aquilegia canadensis Linn. Ranunculaceae. wild columbine. 



North America. The roots are eaten by some Indians, according to R. Brown.' 



Arachis hypogaea Linn. Leguminosae. earth nut. earth almond, goober, grass 



NUT. GROUND NUT. PEANUT. PINDAR. 



Tropical America. This plant is now under cultivation in warm climates for the 

 seeds which are largely eaten as nuts, and from which an oil is extracted to be used as 

 a substitute for olive oil to which it is equal in quality. Although now only under field 

 cultivation in America, yet, in 1806, McMahon * included this plant among kitchen-garden 

 esculents. For a long time, writers on botany were uncertain whether the peanut was 

 a native of Africa or of America, but, since Squier ^ has found this seed in jars taken from 

 the mummy graves of Peru, the question of its American origin seems settled. The first 

 writer who notes it, is Oviedo in his Cronica de las Indias, who says " the Indians cultivate 

 very much the fruit mani." Before this, the French colonists, sent in 1555 to the Brazilian 

 coast, became acquainted with it tmder the name of mandobi.^ 



The peanut was figured by Laet, 1625,'' and by Marcgravius, 1648,* as the anchic 

 of the Peruvians, the mani of the Spaniards. It seems to be mentioned by Garcilasso 

 de la Vega,' 1609, as being raised by the Indians under the name, ynchic. The Spaniards 

 call it mani but all the names, he observes, which the Spaniards give to the fruits and 

 vegetables of Peru belong to the language of the Antilles. The fruit is raised under- 

 grotmd, he says, and " is very like marrow and has the taste of almonds." Marcgravius,'" 

 1648, andPiso," 1658, describe and figure the plant, under the name of mandubi, as com- 

 mon and indigenous in Brazil. They cite Monardes,'^ an author late in the sixteenth 

 century, as having found it in Peru with a different name, anchic.^^ Father Merolla," 



Drury, H. Useful Ph. Ind. 43. 1858. 

 Archer Bot. Soc. Edinb. 8:163. 1866. 

 Brown, R. Card. Chron. i$20. 1868. 

 'McMahon, B. A mer. Card. Col. 581. 1806. 

 Squier, E. G. Peru 81. 1877. 

 Fluckiger and Hanbtiry Pharm. 186. 1879. 

 ' Ibid. 



De CandoUe, A. Geog. Bot. 2:963. 1855. 

 Vega, G. de la. Roy. Comment. Hakl. Soc. Ed. 2:360. 1871. 

 ' De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:963. 1855. 

 " Ibid. 



" De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:962. i855- 

 ' Ibid. 

 "Churchill Coll. Voy. 1:563. 1744. . 



