PLANTS WITH NUTRITIVE ROOTS. 385 
afterwards drying them,—a practice which our au- 
thor thinks might be followed with advantage in 
Europe. He also recommends obtaining the seeds 
of the potatoes cultivated at Quito and Santa Fe, 
which are a foot in diameter, and superior in qua- 
lity to those in the Old Continent. It is unnecessary 
to expatiate on the advantages derived from this in- 
valuable root, the use of which now extends from 
the extremity of Africa to Lapland, and from the 
southern regions of America to Labrador. 
The New World is very rich in plants with nu- 
tritive roots. Next to the manioc and the potato, the 
most important are the oca, the dafate, and the 7g- 
name. The first of these (Oxalis tuberosa) grows in 
the cold and temperate parts of the cordilleras. The 
igname (Déoscorea alata) appears proper to all the 
equinoctial regions of the globe. Ofthe batate (Con- 
volvulus batatas), several varieties are raised. The 
cacomite, a species of Tigridia, the root of which 
yields a nutritive farina ; numerous varieties of love- 
apples (Solanum lycopersicum) ; the earth pistachio 
or mani (Arachis hypogea) ; and different species 
of pimento (Capsicum), are the other useful plants 
cultivated there. 
The Mexicans now have all the culinary vege- 
tables and fruit-trees of Europe; but it has become 
difficult to determine which of the former they pos- 
sessed before the arrival of the Spaniards. It is 
certain, however, that they had onions, haricots, 
gourds, and several varieties of Cicer ; and in gene- 
ral, if we consider the garden-stuffs of the Aztecs 
and the great number of farinacecus roots cultivat- 
ed in Mexico and Peru, we shall see that they were 
not so poor in alimentary plants as some maintain. 
2A 
