Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Edwin Lankester. Revised and partly rewritten].

  • Edwin Lankester
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Edwin Lankester. Revised and partly rewritten]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    155/518 page 149
    ginian potato, having, as he states, received the roots from Virginia, otherwise called Nozcnibcga. It was, however, considered by him as a rarity, for he recom- mends that the root should be eaten as a delicate dish, and not as common food. From the authority of more than one writer, it would appear that the potato was brought into southern Europe through a differeut channel, and at an earlier period than the introduction of the root from Virginia into this country. Clusius relates that he obtained this root at Vienna in 1598, from the governor of Mons in Ilainault, who had procured it in the preceding year from Italy, I where, in common with the truffle, it had received the I name of taratovff.i. Peter Cieca, in his ‘ Chronicle,’ I printed in 1563, chap. xl. p. 49, relates that the in- 1 habitants of Quito and its vicinity, besides producing maize, cultivated a tuberous root which was used as food under the name of papas: this, it is affirmed, is the same plant which had been transplanted to the south of 1 Europe, and which Clusius received from Ilainault. I Humboldt rather doubts if sufficient proof can be pro- |i duced of this root having been indigenous to South i America. Upon the interesting subject of the native I country of the ])otato, we gladly quote the following ac- I count by Mr. Cruickshanks “ Mr. Lambert, in the tenth volume of ‘ Brande's Journal,’ and in the apiiendix to his sjdendid work on ’ the genus Finns, has collected many valuable facts which , prove that the ]iotato is found wild in several parts of I America, and among others in Chili and Peru. Don I Jose Pavon, in a letter to Mr. Lambert, says, ‘ The . Solanimi tuberosum grows wild in the environs of Lima, and fourteen leagues from Lima on the coast; and I myself have found it iii the kingdom of Chiliand Mr. Lambert adds, ‘ 1 have lately received from Mr. Pavon very fine wild sijecimens of Solanum tuberosum, col- lected by himself in Peru.’ There is also a note from Originally puhli.shed in Dr. Hooker's ‘ Botanical Mis- icellany,’ and quoted in the ‘Journal of the Koval lustitu- itioii,’ for December, 1831. VOL. I.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3