328 REVIEWS. 



sides many we used whose names we know not " (Smith's 

 Gen. History, 1632, p. 26; and repeated by Straehey, 

 Travaile into Virginia, p. 120). Smith's purslain was 

 probably Sedum tematum. 



Sagard-Theodat, in the relation of his " Grand Voyage dn 

 Pays des Hnrons," in 1624 (p. 331), says that the Hurons 

 make little use of herbs, " although the pourpier or pource- 

 laine is very common there, and grows spontaneously in their 

 fields of corn and pumpkins." 



W. Wood, who was in New England from 1629 to 1633, 

 names " Purselane " among plants growing " in the woods, 

 without either the art or the help of man " (N. E. Prospect, 

 pt. 1, c. 5). We doubt its growing literally in the woods, as 

 unlike its natural habit, and place more confidence in the 

 statement of Champlain, who, in his earlier voyages, 1604-11, 

 found plenty of excellent " pourpier," for his salads, on the 

 coast of New England, growing among the Indian Corn ; " the 

 savages making no more account of it than if it were a nox- 

 ious weed " (Voyages, ed. 1632, p. 80). 



Humulus Lupulus, Hops. — Although the matter has noth- 

 ing to do with the introduction of Hops into cultivation, it is 

 noticeable that De Candolle assigns the home of the plant 

 only to Europe and western Asia. It is undoubtedly indige- 

 nous to North America also, and is mentioned as such in the 

 American works. In Gray's " Manual," besides the printing 

 of the name in the type appropriate to indigenous species, the 

 plant is expressly stated to be " clearly indigenous." But, 

 through some oversight, in the " Prodromus " (xvi. 29), it is 

 stated, in connection with this very reference, that the plant 

 was introduced. 



Oca. — Considering that " Mate " and " Coca " find place 

 in this volume, although perhaps rather employed than culti- 

 vated (at least the former), the absence of Oca QOxalis tuber- 

 osa and O. crenata) is noticeable. This esculent root deserves 

 mention, if only for the antiquity of its culture in Peru. The 

 name, which is Quichuan, appears to have belonged, specially, 

 to Oxalis tuberose/. Another root " like the oca in shape, but 

 not in taste," called in Quichua " anus," was less esteemed. 



