NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF HELIANTHUS TUBE- 

 ROSUS, THE -SO-CALLED JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. 



Under this heading the botanical editor of the Journal l 

 proposes to offer a few explanatory remarks, introductory to 

 the subjoined letter which he received from Mr. Trumbull in 

 answer to a recent inquiry. 



Linnaeus, in the " Species Plantarum," gave to Helianthus 

 tuberosus the " habitat in Brasilia." In his earlier " Hortus 

 Cliffortianus " the habitat assigned was " Canada." M. Al- 

 phonse De Candolle, in his " Geographie Botanique," ii. 824 

 (1855), refers to this as " decidedly an error, at least as to 

 Canada properly so called," assigns good reasons for the opin- 

 ion that it did not come from Brazil, nor from Peru (to which 

 the name under which it appeared in cultivation in the Far- 

 nese garden seemed to refer), but in all probability from 

 Mexico or the United States. He adds that Humboldt did 

 not meet with it in any of the Spanish colonies. 



About this time I received from my friend and correspon- 

 dent, the late Dr. Short of Kentucky, some long and narrow 

 tubers of Helianthus doronicoides, Lam., with the statement 

 that he and some of his neighbors found them good food for 

 hogs, and, if I rightly remember, had planted them for that 

 purpose. They were planted here in the Botanic Garden ; 

 after two or three years it was found that some of the tubers 

 produced were thicker and shorter ; some of these were cooked 

 along with Jerusalem artichokes, and found to resemble them 

 in flavor, although coarser. Consequently, in the second 

 edition of my " Manual of the Botany of the Northern United 

 States " (1856), it is stated that H. doronicoides is most 

 probably the original of IT. tuberosus. This opinion was 



1 American Journal of Science and Arts, 3 ser., xiii. 347. (1877.) 



