ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE PEANUT 19 



Calocassia antiquorum, and the Oetium of Pliny referred to Cyperus 

 esculentus. Arachis hypogaea was introduced into Egypt only in recent 

 times as indicated by the vernacular name "ful Sudani." The confusion 

 was accentuated by the fact that the name Arachidna was used for the 

 peanut by several naturalists and voyagers near the close of the seven- 

 teenth century. 



Likewise, there is nothing to support the suggestion of Asiatic origin. 

 Tradition in China and in India indicates recent introduction into the 

 Asiatic mainland from the Philippine Islands or other of the South Pacific 

 Islands. 



Many attempts have been made to trace the distribution of the peanut 

 through the vernacular names which might have been passed from one 

 locality to another with seed of the plant. Chevalier (7) lists several hun- 

 dred but, with few exceptions, these are local names which in that dialect 

 are more or less descriptive of the seed or fruits of the plant as, for ex- 

 ample, the English names, peanut, groundnut, and groundpea ; the French, 

 "pistach du terre," {ground pistache) ; and the Portuguese, "Amendoim." 

 Exceptions to be cited such as "pindar" and "goober" are undoubtedly 

 corruptions from some African names by African-born slaves who had 

 known either the peanut or Voandzeia in Africa. The two common names 

 in use in Spanish-speaking countries are: "Cacahuate," used in Spain 

 and Mexico, derived from the Nahuatlan (Aztec) name "tlalcacahuatl" 

 (earth cacao) ; and the other, "mani" used throughout Spanish America 

 except Mexico, is Thalail name heard by the Spaniards in Hispanola, 

 now Haiti-Santo Domingo. The Brazilian name "Mandubi" is apparently 

 derived from the Indian name which is variously written from the Indian 

 articulation as "Mandobi," "Manobi," "Mun dubi," "Mondorvi" and 

 "Minui." 



In 1838, Bentham published his "Flora Braziliensis" describing five 

 species of Arachis, all from Brazil. This caused botanists generally to take 

 with favor the claim for American origin of the cultivated A. hypogaea L. 

 because, as stated by A. de CandoUe (4), "A genus with all its known 

 species thus confined to a single region of America can hardly have a 

 species common to both the New World and the Old. That would be too 

 great an exception to a common principle of phytogeography." But posi- 

 tive proof as to American origin came with the discovery of peanuts, 

 similar in appearance to varieties now grown in Peru, in ancient graves 

 excavated at Ancon, Pachacamac, and other points in the desert region 

 along the coast of Peru, about 1875. E. G. Squier (21), a United States 

 Commissioner to Peru, gives a vivid description of these burial grounds : 



