32o REVIEWS. 



clearly apprehended, was sometimes lost sight of. Peter 

 Martyr (dec. iii. lib. 9, p. 302) says that "the species of 

 'Ages' are innumerable — the varieties being distinguished 

 by their leaves and flowers ; " and he gives the American 

 names of nine of the varieties ; but five of these nine are 

 named by Oviedo (p. 274) as varieties of " Batatas." [See 

 Batatas, ante.] 



The " Gentleman of Elvas," who wrote the narrative of 

 DeSoto's expedition, mentions a fruit, at Santiago, Cuba, 

 called " batata," the subsistence of a multitude of people, prin- 

 cipally slaves, and which now (1538) grows in the island 

 of Terceira, belonging to Portugal. ..." It looks like the 

 ' ynhame,' with nearly the taste of chestnuts " (Rela^am Ver- 

 dadeira, ch. 5). 1 



Jean de Lery, who was in Brazil in 1557, though he gives 

 a good description of the " Batata," does not mention the 

 Yam ; but it is figured and described by Piso (Hist. Nat. 

 Brazil., 1648, p. 93), as "Inhame" of St. Thomas, called 

 " Cara " by the natives of Brazil, and " Quiquoaquecongo " 

 by the Congo negroes. Ruiz de Montoya has the name 

 '• Cara " in his Tupi dictionary, 1639, and mentions five vari- 

 eties. As the Tupi name for the Virginia Potato (Sol ami m 

 tuberosum), " Carati " Qi. e., white Yam), is formed from that 

 of the " Inhame," it w r ould seem that the latter was of earlier 

 introduction. So, in the Mpongwe — a language of the Congo 

 group — the Potato is called " mongotanga," "white-man's 

 yam." 



Portulaca oleracea, Purslain. — Botanists have taken it 

 for granted that this weed of gardens and other cultivated 

 grounds was transported to America from the Old "World. 

 But Xuttall found it apparently indigenous on the upper Mis- 

 souri forty years ago, and Dr. James in Long's Expedition, 

 along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains in what is now 

 the State of Colorado. From thence to Texas it grows wild 



1 In one Indian language of the south, the Choctaw, the Sweet Potato 

 is now called " ahe " ; while the Virginia Potato (<S. tuberosum) takes the 

 adopted prefix of " Irish," " Ilish ahe," or is sometimes called " ahe lumbo," 

 " round ahe." 



