ON THE NATIVE COUNTRY OE THE TOTATO. 
125 
or the former may be the progeny of more than one of the latter. 
In determining the native country of the Potato it seems to me we 
must adopt the same standard for our species, whether wild or 
cultivated, and admit the same extent of variation, otherwise we 
cannot speak of the Potato, which comprises all these varieties, as 
being wild in any particular locality or district. Admitting a 
certain amount of variation in the wild plant, there is no doubt 
that the Potato is now wild from Mexico to Chili, and across the 
continent to Uruguay and Puenos Ayres, but scarcely any two 
specimens are alike. Sir Joseph Hooker, in the place referred to, 
enumerates six varieties of S. tuberosum land five of Commersonii , 
independently of some other forms which he mentions hut does not 
include under either of these. At the present time there are 
upwards of a dozen additional equally distinct wild forms in the 
collection at Kew. Jameson collected one at Lloa, at an elevation 
of 8000 feet, in places where the forest had been cleared with the 
object of cultivating the soil; Hartweg a totally different one 
in Mount Picacho, Agnas Calientes, Central Mexico ; McLean 
another in Huamantango, Peru, at 10,000 feet; and Mandon 
one near Lorata, in Bolivia, at 11,656 feet; Spruce collected a 
Sacha papa , or wild potato, in the Andes of Quito, at an elevation 
of 12,000 feet. This is of dwarf, dense habit, and the tubers and 
berries are said to be edible, the former reaching the size of a 
pigeon’s egg. There is also a specimen at Hew from Venezuela, 
collected by Pendler, without any precise locality, and Bourgeau 
sent a Solanum from Mexico, “with tubers like the Potato.” I 
have already given the habitats of some of the wild forms which 
have been described as species, and shown generally the distri¬ 
bution of the tuberous Solani of close affinity with S. verrucosum, S. 
Maglia , etc. Seeing that the Potato was first imported into this 
country from Virginia, it is impossible, in my opinion, to fix upon 
any particular wild form to the exclusion of others as its progeni¬ 
tor, thereby limiting or defining its native country. "With regard 
to the bitterness, acridity, or even poisonous properties attributed 
to the tubers of some of the wild forms, we know that tubers of 
cultivated varieties become unwholesome from exposure to full 
light. Gibert, who collected typical S. Commersonii at Monte 
Video, says the tuber “ a absolument le gout de la pomme de terre 
ordinaire,’’whilst Tweedie says it is poisonous. 
