198 ESSAYS. 



strengthened year after year by the behavior of the tubers, 

 and by the close similarity of the herbage and flowers of the 

 two plants, as they grew side by side ; indeed, as the two 

 patches were allowed to run together in a waste or neglected 

 place, they have become in a measure confounded. Wishing 

 to obtain an unmixed stock, I applied last autumn to Profes- 

 sor J. M. Coulter of Hanover, Indiana, and received from 

 him a good number of tubers from wild plants of the neigh- 

 borhood, which will now be grown. Some of these were slen- 

 der, some thicker and shorter, and a few were to all appearance 

 identical with Jerusalem artichokes. If they were really all 

 from one stock, as there is reason to believe, the question of 

 the origin of Helianthus tuberosus is wellnigh settled. 



We were now interested to know whether our Indians, at 

 least those of the Mississippi Valley, where H. doronicoides 

 belongs, were known to cultivate these tubers or to use them 

 for food. Recently a note in the " American Agriculturist " 

 called attention to a sentence in Dr. Palfrey's " History of 

 New England," i. 27, stating that the Indians of that region 

 raised, among other articles of food, " a species of Sunflower, 

 whose esculent tuberous root resembled the artichoke in taste." 

 The venerable historian found himself at the moment unable 

 to refer me to the sources of this statement ; but as it was 

 now certain that some record of the kind existed, I applied 

 to Mr. Trumbull, who obligingly and promptly supplied the 

 information required, and placed it at my disposal in the fol- 

 lowing letter. 



Hartford, Conn., March 26, 1877. 



My dear Professor Gray: I cannot refer you to the 

 authority (totidem verbis) for Dr. Palfrey's statement that 

 the Indians of New England cultivated " a species of Sun- 

 flower, whose esculent tuberous root resembled the artichoke 

 in taste," but there can be, I think, little doubt of the fact. 

 The historical evidence that "artischoki sub terra" were cul- 

 tivated in Canada and in some parts of New England before 

 the coming of Europeans is tolerably clear. The only ques- 

 tion, if there be any, is as to species ; and this does not appear 

 to have been raised for more than half a century after the 



