274 CONTKIBUTIONS FKOM THE NATIONAL HERBAKIUM. 



which the Spaniards could bring to America, and they had no facilities 

 for securing coconuts from the East Indies. And even if they had 

 been able to arrange such an importation through their jealous com- 

 petitors, the Portuguese, the time required in those days for the 

 necessary sea voyages would have been too long. 



A motive for such an introduction was lacking, as well as an oppor- 

 tunity. It does not appear that any of the early discoverers or 

 historians were familiar with the coconut before coming to America, 

 and they evidently did not become acquainted with it here as an 

 important article of food or as having any other value that would 

 lead them to give it their active attention and care. The agricultural 

 activities of the Spanish colonists took the direction of introducing 

 European plants into America, in the hope of being able to supply 

 themselves with their accustomed foods. The appreciation of the 

 new foods and other products of the agricultural plants that were 

 natives of America and the introduction of American plants into 

 Europe went on only slowly and casually. 



There is nothing to show that tobacco or potatoes reached Europe 

 until after the middle of the sixteenth century. Indian corn and 

 capsicum pepper were known in Germany by 1543, as described by 

 Fuchs, but in both these cases it is possible to doubt whether the 

 plants were post-Columbian introductions from America or pre- 

 Columbian arrivals from the Orient, as indicated by the early histories 

 and by their earliest European names. a Columbus himself began the 

 introduction of European plants into America, but the only tropical 

 types introduced during the period of the early discoveries appear 

 to have been the varieties of bananas and sugar cane brought over 

 from the Canary Islands. 



The Malayan and Polynesian islands, where the coconut is a plant 

 of the first rank, were still undiscovered by Europeans, who had only 

 vague rumors of the medicinal virtues of the Nux Indica, as it was 

 termed in the medieval pharmacopoeia. Even in parts of the East 

 Indies where the coconut palm undoubtedly existed some of the 

 early writers make little or no mention of it. Thus in the extended 



a The history of the early introduction of American plants into Europe has been 

 summarized by Dr. Seb. Killermann, in the Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift, 

 vol. 24, p. 193. (March 28, 1909.) 



Doctor Killermann finds that four American plants were known in Europe before 

 1543, the Indian corn, the capsicum pepper, the squash (Cucurbita maxima), and the 

 French marigold (Tagetes patula). By about the middle of the sixteenth century 

 five other American plants had been recorded, two species of tobacco (Nicotiana 

 tabacum and N. rustica) , the prickly pear (Opuntia), the century plant (Agave), and 

 the tomato. From the second half of the century there are accounts of the bean 

 (Phaseolus vulgaris and P. coccineus), the peanut, the Jerusalem artichoke (Helian- 

 thus tuberosus), the spiderwort (Tradescantia), the nasturtium (Tropaeolum), and the 

 potato. The sweet potato does not appear in this list. The first reference to its 

 existence in Europe given by De Candolle is that of Clusius in 1601. 



