dng KATITE COUKTTIY 07 THE POTATO. 



concerned, applies pretty well to our potato. Yet I think it 

 very certain, that they are very different plants : and of thts 

 the learned baronet would himself have been convinced, if 

 he had consulted a figure of the Openawk. Whether the 

 'plant is figured in De Bry's Collection of Voyages, to which 

 'Sir Joseph refers, I know not, as I have not an opportunity 

 of consulting that valuable work at present. 

 - ^ The opinion, that the openawk of Mr. Herriot is the 

 'potato, will, no doubt, at first sight, be thought to derive 

 'some weight from this circumstance, that, to this day, some 

 Some of the ^of our Indians call the potato (solanum tuberosum) hob-be- 

 potatonow nac. But I apprehend that this circumstance is, really, 6f 

 hob-be-nac : little consequence in the investigation of the subject : for the 

 but this of lit' same Indians (the Lenni-lennape,or Delawares) denominate 

 tie weight, the turnip, which is unquestionably a foreign vegetable, 

 hob-be-nis : aud others of our Indians call the glycine apios, 

 which is soon to be more particularly mentioned, kopnis, or 

 Capitis. Moreover, the common name, at this time, in the 

 Vicinity of Philadelphia, for the sagittaria'sagittifolia, dr 

 common arrow-head, the root of whieh is eaten by the In- 

 dians, is hob-net or hub-net which is, doubtless, a corruption 

 of the Indian name. It is probable, therefore, that the 

 meaning of all these varieties of a common word is nothing 

 asltslmply more than *' esculent root," or something of the kind ; in 



means ^|jg same manner as tuckahoct or tucca-hot is the name, in 



esculent root. 



the language of other Indians, for several very different 



species, and even genera, of plants, the roots of which were 

 eaten frequently in the shape of bread, by the Indians. 

 The openawk 1 have just said, that I have not an opportunity of con- 

 John 'deLaet. suiting the work of Be Bry. But I regret this circumstante 

 the less, since John De Laet, in his very valuable work the 

 Noviis Orbis, has given us some copious extracts from the 

 commentaries of Herriot ; and among other plants, or parts 

 of plants, which he describes from that very respectable ti"^- 

 veller and mathematician, the Flemish historian has fur- 

 nished us with a description together with a figure of the 

 openawk. 



After speaking of the mays, the papaw (annoua triloba, 

 .lAini.)t and some others, De Laet says, " Prseter has et 

 alias herbas, etiam radices edules sponte hie (in Virginia) 



prove- 



