PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SUBTERRANEAN PARTS. 43 



century gave it epithets showing that it was believed to 

 come from Brazil, or from Canada, or from the Indies, 

 that is to say, America. Linnaeus^ adopted, on Parkinson's 

 authority, the opinion of a Canadian origin, of which, 

 however, he had no proof. I pointed out formerly ^ that 

 there are no species of the genus Helianthus in Brazi], 

 and that they are, on the contrary, numerous in North 

 America. 



Schlechtendal,^ after having proved that the Jeru- 

 salem artichoke can resist the severe winters of the 

 centre of Europe, observes that this fact is in favour of 

 the idea of a Canadian origin, and contrary to the belief 

 of its coming from some southern region. Decaisne^ 

 has eliminated from the synonymy of H. tuherosus 

 several quotations which had occasioned the belief 

 in a South American or Mexican origin. Like the 

 American botanists, he recalls what ancient travellers 

 had narrated of certain customs of the aborigines of the 

 Northern States and of Canada. Thus Champlain, in 

 1603, had seen, "in their hands, roots which they cul- 

 tivate, and which taste like an artichoke." Lescarbot ^ 

 speaks of these roots with the artichoke flavour, 

 which multiply freely, and which he had brought back 

 to France, where they began to be sold under the 

 name of topinamhciux. The savages, he says, call them 

 chiquebi. Decaisne also quotes two French horticulturists 

 of the seventeenth century, Colin and Sagard, who 

 evidently speak of the Jerusalem artichoke, and say it 

 came from Canada. It is to be noted that the name 

 Canada had at that time a vague meaning, and compre- 

 hended some parts of the modern United States. Oookin, 

 an American writer on the customs of the aborigines, 

 says that they put pieces of the Jerusalem artichoke into 

 their soups.^ 



' Linnaeus, Sortus Oliffortiamus, p. 420. 

 ' A. de CandoUe, Q4ogr, Bot. Raisonnee, p. 824. 

 » Schleolitendal, Bot. Zeii. 1858, p. 113. 



' Decaisne, Recherches swr I'Origine de quelques-wnes de nos Plantes 

 Alimentcwi'es, in Flore des Serres et .Tardms, vol. 23, 1881, p. 112. 



• Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nouvelle Prance, edit. 3, 1618, t. vi. p. 931 . 

 ' Pickering, Ch/ron. Arrang., pp. 749, 972. 



