* 
248 DeCandolle’s Origin of Cultivated Plants. 
they have often been carried to Spain, when the ships happened 
to make a quick passage, but more often they are lost on the 
voyage. Yet,” adds Oviedo, “J have carried them from this city 
it Saint Domingo in Hispaniola, to the city of Avila,” in Old 
The “Gentleman of Elvas” who wrote the ‘True Relation” 
of DeSoto’s expedition to Florida, in 1538, mentions Batatas, 
then growing in the Island of Terceira (belonging to Portugal). 
Ciega de Leon, who was in Peru in 1547, speaking of the 
fertility of the valleys near the Pacific coast, and the plants 
ea arsed by the Indians, pees among these, sweet potatoes 
(Chron. del Peru, c. 66 To he Quichuan language they were 
called. apichu in the dialect of Quito, cumar. Mr. Markham, 
in a note to his becriaae yt Gaklayt Soc., 1864, p. 284) men- 
tions, on the authority of I eemann, “the curious and inter- 
country, and are met with y oars in various Rtg 
65). Mon ntoya (Tesoro, 1639) gives 5 Tupi- -Guarani name, 
Yeti, and mentions numerous varieties. 
onardes, in the third part of his Simpl. Medic. ex Novo 
Orbe, published in 1574 (translated by Clusius, ed. 159 93, p- 
439) states that Battate ‘‘are now so common in Spain, that ten 
ad wes caravel loads are sent annually from gab Malaga to 
vi 
DeCandolle (who has elsewhere printed a short article upon 
the subject) calls attention to che fact, which ought to be 
familiar, that sweet potatoes are roots, not tubers, and that 
Turpin ‘long ago published good figures illustrating this; also 
that while these roots are free from acrid or noxious qualities, 
all the Convolvulaces with tubers, of which there are many, 
and not a few of large size, are inedible and acrid,—mostly as 
we know, violently purgative 
Manihot ulilissima, Manioc, Cassava-plant—DeCandolle as- 
signs good reasons for concluding (as did Robert Brown, with- 
out giving his reasons) that this important food-plant of the 
* Hans Stade, who was a captive in Eastern Brazil in 1549, briefly mentions 
_ these “ roots called Jettiki, of pleasant taste.” (Captivity, Hak. ‘Soe. ed., p. 166.) 
