76 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
growing both in the forests and in cultivation. The wild potato was found grow- 
ing in the Andean forests from New Grenada on the north to Buenos Ayres on 
the south. And it is now known to be abundant as far north as New Mexico, in 
the United States, where it is a common and important article of diet with the 
Indians of that region. Humboldt does not seem to have been successful in 
finding the potato growing indigenously in some portions of the country where 
others assert that it was found. He says that "the potato is not indigenous to 
Peru, and that it is nowhere to be found wild in the Cordilleras situated under 
the tropics. M. Bompland and myself herborized in the back and in the declivity 
of the Andes, from the 5° north to the 12° south, and informed ourselves from 
persons who have examined this chain of colossal mountains as far as the Le Pau 
and Oruro, and we ascertained that in this vast extent of ground no species of 
solanum with nutritive roots vegetates spontaneously. It is true there are places 
not very accessible, and very cold, which the natives call * Parana delas Papas.'" 
But it seems that though these distinguished naturalists did not succeed in finding 
the wild potato growing in these regions, others were more fortunate. Meyer 
states that "if the potato had migrated from Chili to Peru it would probably have 
retained its Chilian name ; but this conjecture is no longer necessary, for it grows 
wild in both countries. I myself have found it in two different places in the Cor- 
dilleras of these countries." 
Hooker^ states that Don Jose Pavon, in a letter to M. Lambert, says that 
Solanum tuberosum grows wild in the environs of Lima and fourteen miles from 
Lima, on the coast, and I myself have found it in the kingdom of Chili. And 
M. Lambert adds, " I have lately received from M. Pavon very fine wild speci- 
mens of Solanum tuberosum collected by himself in Peru. In Chili it is generally 
found in steep, rocky places, where it could never have been cultivated, and 
where its introduction must have been almost impossible. It is very common 
about Valparaiso, and Cruikshank has noticed it along the coast for fifteen leagues 
to the northward of that port; how much further it may extend north or south, 
he knows not." Mr. Caldcleugh, of Rio Janeiro, in sending some tubers of the 
wild potato to the secretary of the London Horticultural Society, writes as fol- 
lows : "It is with no small degree of pleasure that I am enabled to send you 
some specimens of Solanum tuberosum, or native wild potato of South America. 
It is found growing in considerable quantities in ravines in the immediate neigh- 
borhood of Valparaiso, on the western side of South America, in latitude S4j4° 
S. The leaves and flowers of the plant are similar in every respect to those culti- 
vated in England and elsewhere. It begins to flower in October, and is not very 
prolific. The roots are small, and of a bitterish taste, some with red and others 
with yellowish skins. I am inclined to think that this plant grows on a large 
extent of the coast, for in the south of Chili it is found, and is called by the 
natives maglia, but I cannot discover that it is employed for any purpose. 
1 Botanical Miscellany. 
