DeCandolle’s Origin of Cultivated Plants. 25 
who wrote the narrative of 
S expedition, mentions a fruit, at Santiago, Cuba 
deira, ¢ ‘ 
Jean de Lery, who was in Brazil in 1557, though he gives a 
good description of the Batata, does not mention the Yam; 
but it is figured and described by Piso (Hist. Nat. Brazil, 1648, 
p. 93), as Inhame of St. Thomas, called Cara by the natives of 
Brazil, and Quiquoaquecongo by the Congo negroes. Ruiz de 
Montoya has the name Card in his Tupi dictionary, 1639, and 
mentions five varieties. As the Tupi name for the Virginia 
potato (Solanum tuberosum) Carati (i. e., white yam), is 
formed from that of the Inhame, it would seem that the latter 
was of earlier introduction. So, in the Mpongwe—a language 
of the Congo group—the potato is called mongotanga ‘ white- 
yam.’ 
ortuga 
ynhame, with nearly the taste of chestnuts” (Relagam Verda- 
h. 5).* 
man’s 
Portulaca oleracea, Purslain.—Botanists have taken it for 
granted that this weed of gardens and other cultivated grounds 
was transported to America from the Old World. But Nuttall 
* In one Indian language of the south, the Choctaw, the sweet potato is now 
called ahe ; while the Firginia potato (S. tuberosum), takes the adopted prefix of 
“Irish,” Ilish ahe, or is sometimes called ahe (wmbo ‘round ahe. . 
