546 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



says the country of the Collao has for the principal food of its inhabitants potatoes, which 

 are Hke the earth-nut. They dry these potatoes in the sun and keep them from one 

 harvest to another. After they are dried, they call them chunus, and they are highly 

 esteemed and valued among them. Chunus, or frozen potatoes, are still the ordinary food 

 in the Collao. Garcilasso de la Vega * also speaks of the papas of the Collao, round and 

 moist, and inclined to rot soon. Prescott ' says the potato formed the great staple of the 

 more elevated plains of Peru, under the Incas. Acosta,' who wrote about 1590, says they 

 call " papas these rootes (which) are like to groimd nuttes, they are small roots which 

 cast out many leaves. They gather this papas, and dry it well in the svmne, then beating 

 it they make that which they call chuno which keepes many daies, and serves for bread 

 . . . they likewise eat of these papas boyled or roasted." Zarata,^ iSSS. speaks of the 

 potato being cultivated by the Peruvians and called papas. In 1565, Hawkins ^ found 

 potatoes at Santa Fe de Bogata and carried some thence. 



In the West Indies, we find no mention of the potato vmtil some time after the dis- 

 covery of the islands. In 1564, Hawkins ' says the potatoes at Margarita Island, just, 

 off the coast of Venezuela, are " the most delicate rootes that may be eaten, and doe far 

 exceede parssnips or carets." In 1595, Captain Preston' and Sommers, on their way 

 to Virginia, stopped at Dominica Islands, and the Indians brought to them " plantans 

 and potatos." In 1633, White * foimd this root in great abundance in Barbados. 



It is quite possible that Hawkins ' carried the potato to North America in 1 565 when 

 he relieved the famine among the French on the banks of the river May, now St. Johns, 

 Florida, and sailed northward towards Virginia, where, in 1584, Hariot '"describes imder 

 the name of openawk what is supposed to be the potato: " The roots of this plant grow 

 in damp soils, many hanging together as if fixed on ropes. They are good food, either 

 boiled or roasted." Roimd potatoes, says Jefferson," " were fotmd in Virginia when first 

 visited by the English ; but it is not said whether of spontaneous growth, or by cultivation 

 only." In 1597, Gerarde " says, "it groweth naturally in America, where it was first 

 discovered, as reports Clusius, since which time I have received roots thereof from Vir- 

 ginia, otherwise called Norembega;" his description applies to the potato. The potato 

 is mentioned under cultivation in Virginia in 1609," in 1648 " and in 1649 as better than 



' V^a Roy. Comment. HaM. Soc. Ed. 2:17. 1871. 

 Prescott, W. H. Conq. Peru 1:141. i860. 

 ' Acosta Sierras Peru 259. 1601. 



* Zarate Hist. Conq. Peru. 1555. 



' Hawkins Second Voy. 1564. Hakl. Soc. Ed. 27. 1878. 



Ibid. 



' Preston and Sommers Foy. Hakl. Voy. 10:215. I904- 



' White Pel. Md. 14, 15. 1664. Force Coll. Tracts 4: No. 2. 1846. 



Hawkins Second Foy. 1588. Hakl. Soc. Ed. 66. 1878. 



'" Hariot Narrative Va. 1588. Quaritch Reprint. 26. 1893. 



" Jefferson Notes Va. Trenton 54. 1803. 



"Gerarde, J. Herb. 781. 1597. 



" True Decl. Va. 13. 1610. Force Coll. Tracts 3: No. i. 1844. 



Perf. Desc. Va. 4. 1649. Force Coll. Tracts 2: No. 8. 1838. 



