314 STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



taste. They are much prized by the natives of the Indian Archipelago and in Machian 

 the inhabitants ahnost live on them. Labillardi^re ' says the fruit is eaten boiled by the 

 natives of the Friendly Islands and the flavor is very much like that of chestnuts. Wilkes * 

 says it is the principal food of the mountaineers of Fiji. Voigt ' says the nuts are edible 

 but are by no means pleasant. The tree is called in Tahiti, rata.* 



Inula crithmoides Linn. Contpositae. 



Mediterranean regions. The leaves are pickled and eaten as a condiment." 



Ipomoea aquatica Forsk. Convolvulaceae. sweet potato, water convolvulus. 



Old World tropics. In the Philippines, the root is cooked and eaten by the natives.' 

 This species is often planted by the Chinese arotmd the edges of tanks and pools for the 

 sake of its succulent leaves.' It is largely cultivated in central China as a vegetable; it 

 is eaten in the spring and somewhat resembles spinach in flavor.' 



I. batatas Poir. sweet potato. 



Tropics of America. This widely-distributed, cultivated plant, originally of South 

 and Central America, had developed many varieties at the period of its discovery by 

 Columbus. Peter Martyr,' 1514, mentions batatas as cultivated in Honduras and gives 

 the names of nine varieties. In 1526, Oviedo i" not only mentions sweet potatoes in the 

 West Indies, but says thej' often have been carried to Spain, and that he had carried them 

 himself to Avila, in Castile. In Peru, Garcilasso de la Vega " says the apichu are of four 

 or five different colors, some red, others yellow, others white, and others brown, and this 

 author was contemporary with the conquest. The camote of Yucatan, called in the islands 

 axi and batatas, is mentioned in the fourth voyage of Columbus,'- and Chanca, physician 

 to the fleet of Columbus, in a letter dated 1494, speaks of ages as among the productions 

 of Hispaniola. In Europe, sweet potatoes are mentioned by Cardanus," 1556, and Clu- 

 sius," 1566, describes the red, or purple, and the pale, or white, sorts as under culture 

 in Spain, and, in 1576, notes that their culture had been attempted in Belgium. Their 

 mention thereafter in the early botanies is frequent. 



The culture of sweet potatoes is noted for Virginia before 1650.'^ In 1750, Hughes " 



' Labillardidre Voy. Recherche La Perouse 2:153. 799. 

 Wilkes, C. U. S. Explor. Exped. 3:334. 1845. 



Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. ^yj. 1879. 



Ibid. 



'Johnson. C. P. Useful Pis. Gl. Brit. 161. 1862. (Limbarda crithmoides) 



Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 703. 1879. (I. reptans) 



' Williams, S. W. Mid. King. i:2Sy. 1848. (Convolvulus reptans) 



Smith, F. A. Contrib. Mat. Med. China 71. 1871. 

 Eden Hist. Trav. 88, 143. 1577. 



" Gray and Trumbull Am. Jour. Sci. 248. 1883. 



"Vega, G. de la. Roy. Comment. Hakl. Sec. Ed. 2:359. 1871. 



" Fluckiger and Hanbury Pharm. 452. 1879. 



" Cardanus i?erMm Var. 189. 1556. 



" Clusius Hm/. 297. 1576. 



"Williams, E. Virginians. 1650. Force Coll. Tracts 3 : No. 1 1 . 1844. 



"Hughes, G. Nat. Hist. Barb. 228. 1750. 



