CHAPTER II 



ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY 

 OF THE PEANUT 



By 

 B. B. HIGGINS* 



What are the origin and the history of the cultivated peanut, and what 

 are its close relatives in the plant world? One would think that a plant 

 with such striking botanical characteristics and with such economic possi- 

 bilities could not long escape notice of botanists or of those interested in 

 production of food crops, and that these questions would be readily answer- 

 able. However, the New World presented to the eyes of explorers and 

 colonists so many new plants: Indian corn, Irish potato, sweet potato, 

 cassava, cacao, beans, tobacco and many other plants of even greater 

 interest that the peanut received scant attention. Consequently, the origin, 

 history, introduction into various countries, and the affinities of the culti- 

 vated peanut are still hazy. Many points have been cleared during the 

 past 25 years and with the accelerated investigations now in progress 

 much more information should be available within a decade. 



In 1933, August Chevalier (6) wrote, "le prohleme de le origine de 

 I'Arachide a fait couler des flats d'encre." ( Translation : The problem of 

 the origin of the peanut has made floods of ink flow.) During the nine- 

 teenth century a number of authors attempted to prove that the peanut 

 originated in Africa and cited plants with subterranean fruits described by 

 Theophrastus and Pliny as occurring in Egypt and other Mediterranean 

 countries. Chevalier (6) has summarized the opinions of various students 

 as to the identity of these plants and the evidence is conclusive that neither 

 Pliny nor Theophrastus saw or mentioned the plant now known as 

 Arachis hypogaea. The Arachidna of the ancient Greeks was evidently 

 applied to a species of Lathyrus, Arakos referred to Lathyrus tuberosa, 

 the Ouiggon mentioned by Theophrastus as occurring in Egypt was 



< B. B. Higgins is botanist, Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station. 



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