SOLANUM TUBEROSUM. 
America, being brought from Virginia by the colonists sent out 
by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584, and who returned in July 1586; 
**and probably,” says Sir Joseph Banks, “ brought with them 
the potato.” Gerarde in his Herbal, published in 1597, gives a 
figure of the potato under the name of Potato of Virginia, 
whence, he says, he received the roots; and this appellation it 
appears to have retained, in order to distinguish it from the bat- 
tatas or sweet potato, Convolvulus Battatas, till the year 
1640, if not longer. Gough says that the potato was first 
planted by Sir Walter Raleigh, on his estate of Youghall, near 
Cork, and that they were soon after carried into Lancashire. 
Gerarde and Parkinson, however, mention them as delicacies 
for the confectioner, and not as common food. Even so late as 
Bradley’s time, they are spoken of as inferior to skirrets and 
radishes. : 
The use of the potato, however, became more and more 
known after the middle of the 18th century, and has greatly in- 
creased in all parts of the world. It is in very general use in 
Holland, and many parts of France and Germany, and is in- 
creasing rapidly in Russia. In Spain and the East and West 
Indies, they are not much cultivated, owing to the heat of the 
climate, but in all the temperate parts of North America, Aus- 
tralasia, and South America, they are grown in abundance. 
In China they are cultivated, but not extensively. Indeed no 
root hitherto discovered is so well adapted for universal use as 
the tubers of the potato; for, having no peculiarity of taste, and 
consisting chiefly of starch, their farina is nearly that of grain. 
CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. 
The So.anum Tuserosum, or Potato, is of more interest as an 
article of diet than as a medicinal agent, though the stalks pos- 
sess the narcotic qualities of the other species, and even the tu- 
bers contain a certain portion of the alkaloid. This appears to 
be confined to their epidermis, and is greatly increased in quan- 
tity where the potato is exposed for any time to the action of 
the light, in which case the epidermis assumes a greenish color, 
and the poisonous principle is so much developed as to render the 
root unfit for food. The water in which potatoes are boiled 
contains solanina. The potato contains much starch, which is 
- eontained in a cellular tissue; this starch, which is the princi- 
pal nutritious ingredient of the tuber, is used asa substitute _ 
