,
often attaining in Peru the weight of sixteen pounds, has a thick green
skin, and a snow-white pulp containing about seventy black seeds. Other
pomological productions are alligator pears, guavas, guayavas,
granadillas, cherries (a small black variety), peaches (very poor),
pears (equally bad), plums, quinces, lemons, oranges (not native),
blackberries, and strawberries (large, but flavorless).[40] The
cultivation of the grape has just commenced. Of vegetables there are
onions (in cookery, "the first, and last, and midst, and without end"),
beets, carrots, asparagus, lettuce, cabbages, turnips, tomatoes
(indigenous, but inferior to ours), potatoes (also indigenous, but much
smaller than their descendants),[41] red peppers, peas (always picked
ripe, while green ones are imported from France!), beans, melons,
squashes, and mushrooms. The last are eaten to a limited extent; Terra
del Fuego, says Darwin, is the only country in the world where a
cryptogamic plant affords a staple article of food.

[Footnote 39: Bollaert derives the name from _chiri_ (cold) and _muhu_
(seed).]

[Footnote 40: Dr. Jameson has found the following species of _Rubus_ in
the valley of Quito: _macrocarpus_, _stipularis_, _glabratus_,
_compactus_, _glaucus_, _rosaeflorus_, _loxensis_, _urticaefolius_,
_floribundus_, and _nubigenus_. The common strawberry, _Fragaria
vesca_, grows in the valley, as also the _Chilensis_.]

[Footnote 41: Lieutenant Gilliss praises the potatoes of Peru, but we
saw no specimens in Ecuador worthy of note. The "Irish potato" is a
native of the Andes. It was unknown to the early Mexicans. It grows as
far south on this continent as lat. 50 deg.. The Spaniards carried the
potato to Europe from Quito early in the sixteenth century. From Spain
it traveled to Italy, Belgium, and Germany. Sir Walter Raleigh imported
some from Virginia in 1586, and planted them on his estate near Cork,
Ireland. It is raised in Asiatic countries only where Europeans have
settled, and for their consumption. It is successfully grown in
Australia and New Zealand, where there is no native esculent farinaceous
root. Von Tschudi says there is no word in Quichua for potato. It is
called _papa_ by the Napos.]

The most important grains are barley, red wheat, and corn, with short
ears, and elongated kernels of divers colors. Near the coast three crops
of corn a year are obtained; at Quito it is of slower growth, but
fuller. The sugar-cane is grown spar