318 REVIEWS. 



which M. De Candolle cites from the edition of 1601. He 

 gives a figure of the plant, of which, he says, he had observed 

 three varieties growing in the south of Spain. He states 

 their American origin, not as a doubtful matter or with a 

 " Ton pretendait," but as a well-established fact : " Sponte 

 nascitur in novo orbe, vicinisque insulis, unde primum in His- 

 paniam delata est." "Now," he adds, "it is planted in many 

 places near the coast of Andalusia ; but those grown at Mal- 

 aga are preferred, and are transported to Cadiz and Seville. 

 We sometimes have them fresh in Belgium, but they will not 

 germinate here, the country being too cold." As to the name 

 — he was as undecided as have been some botanists since his 

 time : " the Spaniards call them ' Batatas,' and also ' Ca- 

 motes ' or ' Amotes ' ; some also ' Ajes ' ; yet, as they say, they 

 differ among themselves, and the root of Batatas may be 

 much the sweeter and the more tender." 



This confusion of names dates from the time of Columbus, 

 for Clusius was not, by half a century, the first to speak of 

 the Batata. (It may be worth noting, in parenthesis, that 

 Batatas, the scientific name adopted by Linnaeus, and as the 

 name of a genus by Choisy, is the Spanish plural of Batata, 

 the aboriginal name.) Even Peter Martyr and Oviedo do 

 not agree in all particulars as to the distinction between 

 "Ajes" and "Batatas" — a distinction which both recognize. 

 In the 9th book of his 2d Decade, written about 1514, Peter 

 Martyr (ed. 1574, p. 191), describing the fruits, etc., of the 

 province of Uraba, Darien, names, for the first time, Batata?. 

 " They dig from the earth," he says, " roots that grow spon- 

 taneously (suapte natura nasccntcs') ; the natives call them 

 ' Batatas ' [accus. plural], which when I saw I thought to be 

 rapes of Lombardy [? ' Insubres napos '] or great earth-tubers 

 [ Cyclamen Europaium ? JZcqwm terras and Tuber terrce of the 

 old botanists]. In whatever way they are cooked, roasted or 

 boiled, they yield in delicate sweetness l to no confectionery 

 or other eatable whatsoever." They are, he adds, " also 

 planted and cultivated in gardens." In his 3d Decade (lib. 



1 The sweet potato was an inspiration to Peter Martyr, who rarely in- 

 dulged himself in such a flight as " dulcorata mollities." 



