ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 319 



4, p. 240) he mentions " Maize, Yucca, Ages, and Battatse " 

 as plants that grew in Honduras when Columbus landed on 

 that coast in 1502 ; and in the same Decade (lib. 5, p. 261) 

 he names the same four plants as the ordinary food of the 

 people of Caramaira (east of Darien) " as of the others," and 

 again takes occasion to name the battatas, as surpassing all 

 else " mira quaclam dulci mollitie — especially if one falls on 

 the better sort (nobiliores) of them." 



Oviedo gives a good description of the Batata, which, when 

 he wrote (1525-35), was commonly cultivated by the Indians 

 in Hispaniola and elsewhere, and highly prized (Historia, lib. 

 vii. c. 4). It resembles the " Ajes," he says, in appearance, 

 but tastes better and is far more delicate. The leaf is more 

 notched Qiarj^ada') than that of the "Age," in nearly the same 

 fashion. Some varieties are better than others, and he gives 

 the names of the five kinds which are most highly esteemed. 

 [Peter Martyr (dec. iii. lib. 9, p. 302) included the same five 

 names among the nine varieties of " Ajes " that he mentioned 

 as distinct ; but in this, as in other matters pertaining to natural 

 history, Oviedo is the better authority.] " When the Batatas 

 are well cured, they have often been carried to Spain, where 

 the ships happened to make a quick passage, but more often 

 they are lost on the voyage. Yet," adds Oviedo, " I have 

 carried them from this city of Saint Domingo, in Hispaniola, 

 to the city of Avila, in Old Castile." 



The " Gentleman of Elvas " who wrote the " True Rela- 

 tion " of De Soto's expedition to Florida, in 1538, mentions 

 Batatas, then growing in the Island of Terceira (belonging to 

 Portugal). 



Cie^a de Leon, who was in Peru in 1547, speaking of the 

 fertility of the valleys near the Pacific coast, and the plants 

 cultivated by the Indians, names among these. Sweet potatoes 

 (Chron. del Peru, c. 6Q^. In the Quichuan language they 

 were called " apichu " ; in the dialect of Quito, " cumar." Mr. 

 Markham, in a note to his translation (Ilakluyt Soc, 1864, 

 p. 234) mentions, on the authority of Dr. Seemann, " the 

 curious and interesting fact that ' kumara ' is also the word 

 for Sweet potato in Tahiti, the Fiji Islands, and New Zea- 



