90 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Wasson read the following paper on the 

 History of the Potato. 



The Potato — a remarkable instance of what human skill can do 

 — is of the Dicotyledonous class, one of the Nightshade Family, of 

 the genus Solanum, the species tuberosuvi, of varieties numberless. 



Our word potato, is supposed to be a corruption of the Indian 

 word batatas. In South America it is called papas, corrupted in 

 Spain into hattata, in Portugal softened into batata, in Prance into 

 patate, in Italy into patata. 



" Royle's Botany of the Himalaya Mountains " says : " The Old 

 World is indebted to the New World for the potato. It was first 

 found in a wild state in 33° south latitude, in the mountains near 

 Valparaiso about 1550." 



It has since been found on the mountains of Mexico and Central 

 America ; from which fact Humboldt concluded that as it was not 

 known to the Mexicans in the time of Montezuma, it must have 

 travelled north "in the course followed by the Incas in their 

 conquests." 



Humboldt also states that "the potato is not indigenous in Peru, 

 and that is nowhere to be found wild in the part of the Cordilleras 

 situated under the tropics." 



Certain European botanists, among them Deppe and Schiede, 

 conclude as probable that the English colonies in North America 

 did not receive the potato from South America, but that this plant 

 was originally in some country of the Northern Hemisphere, as it 

 was in Chili. It is now asserted that the potato has been found 

 wild on the Himalaya Mountains in Asia.' 



Says Dr. Smee : "The potato plant does not grow wild in any 

 part of North America ; but in its natural state, is only to be 

 found on the western side of South America." A writer in 159*7, 

 said: "It groweth naturally, where it was discovered by Colum- 

 bus." 



It is beyond a doubt that the potato, at the time of the discovery 

 of America, was already cultivated in South America, although 

 it was not known in Mexico. 



The history of the discovery of the potato, in connection with 

 that of the sweet potato, is involved in obscurity. The sweet 

 potato — believed by many to be of Asiatic origin — was the potato 

 of the old English writers in the early part of the 14th century. 



