666 Kitchen Garden Esculents of American Origin. [July, 
Sweet Potato—We do not hear of the sweet potato until after 
the discovery of America.’ Clusius, in 1566, first saw them in 
Spain, and Oviedo records their introduction from the West 
Indies. Ramusio’s Collection of Voyages was published 1563-74, 
and in the Portuguese pilot’s relation, therein published, is, “ The 
root which is called by the Indians of Hispaniola atata, is named 
igname at St. Thomas [coast of Africa], and is one of the most 
essential articles of their food.’* The igname was mentioned at 
St. Thomas by Scaliger, 1566. It was grown by Gerarde in 
England in 1597, and is figured by Rheede as cultivated in Mala- 
bar, and by Rumphius in Amboyna, the latter asserting that they 
were brought by the Spanish Americans to Manilla and the 
Moluccas, whence the Portuguese diffused it through the Malay 
archipelago. In China Bretschneider tells De Candolle® that 
according to the Chinese books the sweet potato is foreign to 
China, and that the Min-shu published in the sixteenth century, 
says that the introduction took place between 1573 and 1620. 
In America they are noted by many of the early voyagers, from 
Columbus onward. Asa Gray and Trumbull, Am. Four. of Sc., 
April, 1883, have collected the evidence. We may add to their 
references that Chanca, physician to the fleet of Columbus, in a 
letter dated 1494, speaks of age or sweet potatoes or yams as 
among the productions of Hispaniola, and Pigafetta Vicentia, 
1591, found in Brazil dazatas, “ they resembled turnips and tasted 
like chestnuts.” Peter Martyr’ describes many varieties, as does 
also Oviedo® and Garcilasso de la Vega,’ this fact of variety indi- 
cating antiquity of culture. 
Gray and Trumbull state that it had reached the Pacific islands 
1! One exception may be noted, but I have not opportunity of studying into the 
authenticity of the statement. In a Spanish MS., 1562, in the island of Palma, by 
John de Abreu de Gallineo, a Francisan friar, an account is given of the voyage of 
Betancon to the island of Ferro (Canaries) in 1405. ‘Their food was the flesh of 
goats, sheep and hogs; they had also some roots which the Spaniards call batatas.” 
The identity of the roots appears to rest u upon the opinion of the writer in 1562, 
after the introduction of the sweet potato and the American name 
_ ® Hist. Rar. Stirp., 1576, 
3 A. Gray, Am. Jour. of Sc., 1883, 24 
4 Gen, Coll. of Voy. by the he Lond 1789, 433. 
oe of Cult. Plants, 58, noi 
© Pharmacog., 452. 
_ 1 Third decade Eden’s nE of Trav., 1577, 143. 
8 Gray and Trumbull, 1. 
a Hak. Soc. a Il, 359. 
7 
