[Footnote 58:  These beans are obviously what are called kidney-beans in this country.—­E.]

Chili is considered by naturalists as the native country of that valuable esculent the potato, or Solanun tuberosum, which is known there by the names of papa and pogny.  It is found indeed wild all over the country; but those wild plants, named maglia, produce only small roots of a bitterish taste.  It is distinguished into two species, and more than thirty varieties are cultivated with much care.  Besides the common species, the second is the cari, Solanum cari, which bears white flowers having a large central nectary like the narcissus.  The roots of this species are cylindrical and very sweet, and are usually roasted under the ashes.

The Oca, or Oxalis tuberosa, produces five or six tuberosities on each root, three or four inches in length covered by a thin smooth skin.  It is eaten boiled or roasted, and has a pleasant subacid taste.  Like the potato, it is multiplied by means of its bulbs cut in pieces.  There are several species of this plant; one of which called red culle, is much used in dyeing, and Is considered as a specific remedy for inflammatory fevers.

Two species of gourds are known in Chili.  The first species, with a white flower, called quada, has twenty-six varieties, several of which produce sweet and edible fruit, while that of the others is bitter.  With one of these last, after extracting the seeds, the Chilese give a pleasant perfume or flavour to their cyder.  The yellow-flowering gourd, called penca, has two kinds or varieties, the common and mamillary, owing to the fruit of the latter having a large nipple-shaped process at the end.  Its pulp is sweet, and resembles in taste a kind of potato named camote.

The quelghen, or Chili strawberry has rough and succulent leaves, and its fruit is sometimes as large as a hens egg.  This fruit is generally red and white; but in the provinces of Puchacay and Huilquilemeu, where they attain the greatest perfection, the fruit is yellow.  “The Chili strawberry is dioecial, and has degenerated much in Europe by the want of male plants, and the females producing hybrid fruit by impregnation from the ordinary strawberries growing in the neighbourhood; in consequence of which circumstance the cultivation of this kind has been abandoned in Europe.”

The madi, a new genus of plants peculiar to Chili, has two species, one wild and the other cultivated.  From the seeds of the latter an excellent oil is procured, either by expression, or by boiling in water, of an agreeable mild taste, and as clear as the best olive oil.  This plant, hitherto unknown in Europe, would be a most valuable acquisition to those countries in which the olive cannot be raised.

Many species of the capsicum, or guinea pepper, are cultivated in Chili, under the name of thapi, and are used as seasonings in the food of the natives.