Edible Products. 



88 



[Feb. 1901 



Races in Cultivation.— The many different forms of Arachis hypogcea 

 which exist, admit of a rough classification into "bunched" and "running" 

 varieties. In the one the stems are erect, in the other prostrate, but ascending 

 at the tips. Botanists have seized on this difference as a means of classifying the 

 forms, and have applied the names — inappropriate to an American plant— of 

 Africana and indica. The former name embraces the running, the latter the 

 bunched forms.* 



Typical among rnnning forms is that commonly grown in Virginia ; its 

 spreading branches may have a length of two feet, or even more, and pods are 

 borne on them almost to the tip. The " Spanish pea-nut " is an extreme of the 

 other type, with several erect stems and the pods crowded at the base— a condition 

 imposed on the plant by the impossibility of thrusting nuts from upper flowers 

 into the soil. Between these two extremes fall the many forms dispersed over the 

 world ; Ave possess but little information leading to a determination of their 

 relative merits. 



Upwards of three-quarters of the nuts grown in the United States are sold 

 in the streets for eating. Those most in demand are the Virginian, on account of 

 the relatively small percentage of oil which they contain. Virginia produces two 

 forms ; one, as described, " running," the other "bunched." The pods of both kinds 

 are large and white. Tennessee grows two forms— " white" and "red," so-called 

 from the colour of the seed-coats. The former is a running variety closely resem- 

 bling the Virginian form ; the latter, with seeds less agreeable to the taste, is more 

 or less erect in habit, and favoured as a forage crop. North Carolina grows a form 

 resembling the African plant in habit, with heavier and smaller pods than those of 

 Virginia ; and Georgia produces a red-seed form, bunched, and with three or four 

 seeds to the pods- The so-called " Spanish pea-nut," grown in the United States, is a 

 bunched form, alike in favour for forage and for confectioner's' purposes on account 

 of the sweetness of its seeds. Costa Rica produces the form named earlier, whose 

 abnormally long pods contain four or five seeds ; in the Argentine one with orange- 

 yellow husks in common. 



African forms, despite the application of the name africana to the bunched 

 group, are for the most part semi-prostrate. On the Senegambia coast two forms 

 exist, taking their names from the place names 



African forms, despite the application of the name africana to the bunched 

 group, are for the most part semi-prostrate. On the Senegambia coast two forms 

 exist, taking their names from the place names of Galam and Cayor. The Galam 

 nut is that which chiefly supplies the exports of West Africa. Rufisque has been 

 the chief port of shipment ; thence the British Colonies of Gambia and Sierra Leone 

 obtained seed, and practically throughout these dependencies this is the form 

 cultivated. The Cayor nut from Senegambia is coarser, thicker-husked, and yields 

 an inferior oil. Egypt produces a very prostrate form. On the Mozambique coast a 

 rather small-podded plant is cultivated (W. W. A. Fitzgerald, Travels, London 

 1898. 



Very little information is to hand concerning the varieties met with in Asia 

 Like the African, the Indian plant is semi-prostrate. Two forms, differing in the 



* Arachis hypogrea, var. africana, F. Kurtz in Verhandl bot. Vereins Brandenberg, 1875, p. 45 is 

 A, aeiatica, Lour. Flora Cochinch, p. 430, and the " Arachide d'Afrique " of Cordemoy in Audansonia 

 Vi, 1866 p 249 ; while A. hypogaea, var. indiua, F. Kurtz is A. africana, Lour., the " Arachide de 1' Inde'* 



of Cordemoy, 



De Candolle's Var. glabra (Prodromus II. 1825, p. 474) is a hairless form; Hasskarl's var. 

 aegyptiaca (Eetzia I.. 1855, p. 190) is a prostrate form which he thought perennial ; Harz's varieties 

 reticittttta and vulgaris (Samenkuude II. 1885, p. 643) are denned on the conspicuous or obscure reti« 

 tulatiou of the pod ; we need not concern ourselves further with them, 



