" Like the potato, the Arracacha does not thrive in the 
hotter regions of the kingdom, for there the roots will not ac- 
quire any size, but throw up a great number of stems, or at best 
they will be but small and indifferent in flavour. In the coun- 
tries which are there called temperate, being less hot than those 
at the foot of the Cordilleras, this vegetable sometimes succeeds, 
but never so well as in the elevated region of those mountains, 
where the medium heat is between 58° and 60° of Fahrenheit. 
Here it is that these roots grow the most luxuriantly, and ac- 
quire the most delicious taste." 
Mr Vargas farther remarks, that he was not aware of the 
existence of this plant in any other part of America than the 
kindgom of Santa ; and also that it is not mentioned by 
any American writer except Alcedo, who notices it in few 
words, at the end of his " Diccionario Geographico-kisforico 
de las Indias Occidentales d America^ 
I believe that nothing farther had been made known re- 
specting the Arracacha until the late Baron De Shack, with- 
in few years, endeavoured to introduce this valuable vegetable 
into the Old World, and at three different periods communi* 
cated living roots to our garden at Glasgow, to that of Liver- 
pool, and I believe also to the Horticultural Society of Lon- 
don. Both his and our expectations were very highly raised. 
We hoped that by care, and a gradual inuring of the offsets to 
the temperature of our climate, the roots might become as hardy 
as those of the potato. Unhappily our anticipations have been 
disappointed ; although we have tried almost every variety of 
situation, temperature, and soil, with us they have only pro- 
duced, at best, a few leaves, and at the end of the year, or even 
less, have perished altogether. Mr Shepherd alone has been 
so fortunate, during the early part of the spring of 1824, as to 
have a few plants flowering in his garden. From these the 
present figure and description have been taken. 
According to letters which I have received from Baron De 
ScHACK, the Arracacha is an essential article of food, not 
only to the poor, but to the rich, throughout Santa Fd and New 
Granada, and is every where cultivated as carrots are with us. 
That gentleman also found it abundantly in the Caraccas and 
