THE SWEET POTATO. 17 



the method of storing tlieii used, which differs not 

 very much from tlie metliod of storing empk^yed in 

 the South at present. 



He was aware that tlie plant was really a per- 

 ennial, and forced into the hal)it of an annual only 

 by tlie shortness of the season. 



Catesby makes the first attempt at a classification 

 of varieties. From his description it is, of course, 

 not possible to tell exactly which varieties he picked 

 out as standards, still his "Conuuon I^otato," 

 ''Brimstone Potato" and 'H/arrot Potato" may well 

 have l)een varieties like the l\ed Jersey, Up River 

 and Pumpkin, respectively. A variety which would 

 corres])ond to his ''Claret Potato" is unknown to the 

 wi'iter. 



When Catesby tells us that the sweet potato was 

 one of the princii^al food ]ilants of Africa, he is. no 

 doul)t, mistaken, as it was not introduced into Africa 

 until later. 



That with such good descriptions it could be pos- 

 sible to present the figiire which Catesby gives is 

 hard to understand. He shows a vine with the 

 flowers of a Convolvulus, with a rough tuber like 

 that of a yam, leaves like a Smilax (or Dioscorea), 

 and a tendril at the growing tip. It could not be 

 the misplacing of a i)icture, as such a picture could 

 surely not fit any plant. As we shall see later, his 

 peculiar figure has given rise to Meyer's synonj^m, 

 which still persists in some books, namely, "Con- 

 volvulus Catesbaei." 



In 1737 Burmann (Thesaurus Zeylanicus), under 

 Battattas, gives a resume of the literature bearing 

 on Batatas, but he does not state that he has seen 

 the sweet potato himself, and some of the references 

 he cites refer to the vam. He does not decide on 



