348 Trumbull and Gray — Helianthus tuberosus. 



DeCandolle, in his Geographic Botanique, ii, 824, (1855). refers 

 to this as "decidedly an error, at least as to Canad 

 BO called," assigns good reasons for the opinion that it did not 

 come from Brazil, nor from Peru (to which the name under 

 which it appeared in cultivation in the Farnese garden seemed 

 to refer), but in all probability from Mexico or the United 

 States. He adds that Humboldt did not meet with it in anv 

 of the Spanish colonies. 



About this time I received from my friend and correspondent, 

 the late Dr. Short of Kentucky, some lony and narrow tuners 

 "'' H' "i 'il>>is th.ru.n'r'u'tl, - Lam., "with the statement that he and 

 some of his neighbors found ihem good food for hogs, and, if 



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 



i artichokes, and found to resemble them in flavor, 

 although coarser. Consequently, in the second edition of my 

 Ma,, mi' of the Botany of the Norther,! United .state (1856), it is 

 stated that H. doronicAdes is most probably the original of H- 

 tuberosus. This opinion was 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 



nan to Prof. J. M. Coulter of Hanover, Indi 

 received from him a good number of tubers from wild plants 

 of the neighborhood, which will now be grown. Some of these 

 were slender, some thicker and shorter, and a few were to all 

 appearance identical with Jerusalem artichokes. If thev were 

 really all from one stock, as there is reason to believe, the 

 question of the origin of Helianthus tuberosus is well nigh 

 settled. 



We were now interested to know whether our Indians — at 

 least those of the Mississippi Valley, where H. do 

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

 for food. Recently a note in th< tirist called 



attention to a sentence in Dr. Palfrev's History of New Eng- 

 land, i, 27, stating that tl -■ Indiai - of rh it iv/uiii raised, among ■ 

 lesoffood, "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 snp ,n required, 



and placed it at my disposal in the following letter :— 



