otus of India, China and Japan, whose nuts are even now
used as a food staple. The split kernels of the latter may be bought in
the Chinese shops on Pennsylvania Avenue in this city. The rootstocks of
both the American and the Oriental lotus are also used for food. They
resemble bananas joined together end to end, with several hollow
longitudinal tubes running through them.

Before I close, I should like to call attention to a plant, endemic in
eastern North America, whose tubers were called "ground-nuts," or
"Indian potatoes" by the early colonists. The latter name caused the
plant to be mistaken by certain early writers for the white potato,
which was unknown in North America in early colonial days, but which was
confused with the ground nut on account of the resemblance of the
descriptions of the two plants. The white potato, _Solanum tuberosum_,
was discovered in the Andes of South America by Cieza de Leon; it was
quite unknown in North America or in the West Indies in the days of Sir
Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake, both of whom have erroneously been
given the credit of introducing the potato into England. The "potato"
which they observed in the West Indies was not _Solanum tuberosum_,
which we now call the "white potato" or "Irish potato," but a very
distinct plant, _Ipomoea batatas_, which we now call the "sweet potato,"
but which in early days was known as the _batata_ or _potato_. The error
which has become widely spread, can be traced to John Gerarde, the first
author to publish an illustration of _Solanum tuberosum_. In his
celebrated _Herball_ he declares that the potatoes figured by him were
grown in his garden from tubers which came from "Virginia, or
Norembega." It is quite certain that this statement was untrue, and
that, as certain English writers have already suggested, Gerard "wished
to mystify his readers." Whatever may have been his motive, the error
became widely spread. Even Thomas Jefferson was led to believe that
_Solanum tuberosum_ was encountered in Virginia by the early colonists,
and Schoolcraft declared that its tubers were gathered wild in the woods
like other wild roots. The Indian potato of the early colonists is still
abundant in "moist and marish grounds," as described by Herriot. It is a
tuber-bearing plant of the bean family, and is known botanically as
_Glycine apios_.

But I fear my talk has become too discursive, in turning from nuts to
ground nuts, and from ground nuts to p