From Sturtevant’s
Edible Plants Of The World
by E. Lewis
Sturtevant
Peanut
Arachis hypogaea Linn.
Leguminosae
EARTH NUT. EARTH ALMOND. GOOBER. GRASS NUT. GROUND NUT. PEANUT. PINDAR.
Tropical
America. This plant is now under cultivation in warm climates for the
seeds which are largely eaten as nuts, and from which an oil is
extracted to be used as a substitute for olive oil to which it is equal
in quality. Although now only under field cultivation in America, yet,
in 1806, McMahon included this plant among kitchen-garden esculents.
For a long time, writers on botany were uncertain whether the peanut
was a native of Africa or of America, but, since Squier has found this
seed in jars taken from the mummy graves of Peru, the question of its
American origin seems settled. The first writer who notes it, is Oviedo
in his Cronica de las Indias,
who says "the Indians cultivate very much the fruit mani." Before this,
the French colonists, sent in 1555 to the Brazilian coast, became
acquainted with it under the name of mandobi.
The
peanut was figured by Laet, 1625, and by Marcgravius, 1648, as the
anchic of the Peruvians, the mani of the Spaniards. It seems to be
mentioned by Garcilasso de la Vega, 1609, as being raised by the
Indians under the name, ynchic. The Spaniards call it mani
but all the names, he observes, which the Spaniards give to the fruits
and vegetables of Peru belong to the language of the Antilles. The
fruit is raised underground, he says, and "is very like marrow and has
the taste of almonds."
Marcgravius, 1648, and Piso, 1658,
describe and figure the plant, under the name of mandubi, as common and
indigenous in Brazil. They cite Monardes, an author late in the
sixteenth century, as having found it in Peru with a different name, anchic.
Father
Merolla, 1682, under the name of mandois, describes a vegetable of
Congo which grows "three or four together like vetches but underground
and are about the bigness of an ordinary olive. From these milk is
extracted like to that drawn from almonds." This may be the peanut.
In
China, especially in Kwangtung, peanuts are grown in large quantities
and their consumption by the people is very great. The peanut was
included among garden plants by McMahon, 1806; Burr, 1863, describes
three varieties; and Jefferson speaks of its culture in Virginia in
1781. Its culture was introduced into France in 1802, and the peanut
was described among pot-herbs by Noisette, 1829.
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