I 8 CARL SKOT'ISBI-RG 



a synonym of I. batatas. This plant is universally considered to be of Central 

 American origin, although wild plants are not found nowadays, nor is the more 

 precise locality known where they grew. We must consider whether the same 

 species was not originally a native both in America and in the Polynesian legion 

 or, whether the cultivated forms were not derived from more than one wild 

 species, so that it is unnecessary to suppose that the sweet potato was intro- 

 duced to Polynesia from the American coast. Yams is obtained from forms of 

 several wild species characteristic of different continents. 



If this theory holds good, we should expect to find different names for 

 the sweet potato on the two sides of the Pacific. But according to R. Lenz 

 (Diccionario etimolojico. Santiago 1910), the word cumara is found in the 

 Quichua language; it is not indicated as the principal name of the sweet potato, 

 which is apichii, but nevertheless used, according to this author, for a »clase 

 parecida* of the camote, thus for some form of the same plant. From this 

 fact some people would conclude that, as the plant is American and called 

 cumara by the Quichua, it was introduced to Polynesia under the same name 

 long before the Columbian era. It is useless to discuss this matter any further 

 till we know more of the history of the camote and also, whether the word 

 cumara in Quichua really applies to the true sweet potato and, if such be the 

 case, belongs to the original Quichua language or has been introduced through 

 the ICuropeans. If old communications existed between America and Polynesia, 

 many other proofs must be found. Much has been written about old land- 

 bridges across the ocean, considered by some naturalists to be indispensable 

 for the explanation of the distribution of animals and plants. But generally 

 their existence was supposed to have ceased long before the age of Man. Only 

 H.XLI.IKR (Uber friihere LandbriJcken, Pflanzen- und Volkerwanderungen zwi- 

 schen Australasien und Amerika. Mededeel.'s Rijks Herb. Leiden 13, 191 2) 

 gives them a longevity sufficent to let people march across. I am afraid that 

 such bridges rest on a very unstable foundation. 



To return to the sweet potato, we have seen that it is not mentioned by 

 Ro<;gevkkn as existing in Easter Island in 1722. CoOK and FoRSTER found 

 it in cultivation. At that time also Broussonetia, Thespesia (also Triumfetta?) 

 and toromiro were cultivated in addition to taro, bananas and sugar-cane. 

 .According to tradition all of them were brought by Hotu Matua's party, the 

 first settlers. The barahii mentioned by F. ViDAL GoRMAZ, Jeografia nautica, 

 p. 177 (Anuario Midrogr. de la Marina de Chile, 7) is, to judge from the de- 

 scripton, the same as the hau-hau. The calabash mentioned by THOMSON, 

 p. 535 is Lagenaria vulgaris. At present, the following food-plants are cultiv- 

 ated: sugar, wheat, Indian corn, taro, pineapple, yams, bananas, white mul- 

 berry, figs, maniok, oranges, lemons, grapes, peaches, quince, plums, beans, 

 sweet potatoes, tomatoes, melons, artichokes and lettuce, but several of these 

 only on a very small scale and exclusively in the garden of Mataveri. Some 

 tobacco is also grown. I do not know what Thomson means by the »two 

 varieties of indigenous hemp», as there is no plant of this kind either in a 

 cultivated or abandoned state. The cordage has always been prepared from 

 the hau-hau. as far as I have been able to ascertain. Nor does Mrs. R. refer 

 to any such plant, nor to the hau hau. 



