THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[April, 



rows, which then " over-canopied " the green lanes 

 and country roads about Stratford-upon-Avon in his 

 time, is most natural. And indicative of his intense 

 love for the picturesque scenes around him.he thus 

 tenderly refers to a delightful spot, " I know a bank 

 whereon the wild thyme blows;" and on which 

 imagination may plainly picture him seated, side 

 by side, with his "heart's desire," Ann Hathaway, 

 happy in the enjoyment of each other's sweet 

 company, as they lovingly lingered beneath the 

 " hedge-elms," dog roses, hazel bushes and haw- 

 thorns, which gave such a charm to the rural- 

 landscape, and beautifully " over-canopied " the 

 primrose and violet-scented pathways which led to 

 love's Elysian, the cottage of his betrothed, where 

 dwelt the fair Ann. 



Admitting the poet's thorough acquaintance 

 with nature, and his undoubted knowledge of the 

 simple nomenclature of the trees and flowers, by 

 which they were then known, we, at this day, are 

 nevertheless left in doubt as to whether his eglan- 

 tine was the sweet briar or dog rose. And yet we 

 may justly infer from the rambling or spreading 

 habit of the latter, which is wont to rampantly 

 overtop bushes of lower growth, and thus, while 

 " over-canopying " the narrow country roads and 

 pathways he musingly trode, was what he meant. 

 The sweet briar, though a loose, straggling bush, 

 often met with in wild, uncultivated places, is not 

 exactly the kind likely to have "over-canopied" 

 the wise and meditative man in his quiet rambles 

 along his native ferny lanes, in beautiful Warwick- 

 shire. 



The late Robert Buist, one of the most practical 

 men of his day, writes the sweet briar and eglan- 

 tine as synonyms. And in his "Rose Manual" 

 says "the eglantine has been the theme of poets 

 and lovers for many centuries." True, it has, and 

 probably will be, for many more to come ; or "as 

 long as men love maids and maids love men," 

 without ever once considering whether its name is 

 botanically correct or not. 



I believe no one is more anxious to arrive at 

 facts than the edjtor of this magazine, who is ever 

 ready to impale with his iconoclastic pen the most 

 fondly cherished idol, no matter how long its faith- 

 ful votaries may have innocently worshiped it as 

 the symbol of truth, whenever he discovers the de- 

 lusion. And, possibly, the old eglantine fetich 

 will not be the last one to explode and expire from 

 the prick of his pungent pen. 



[In these questions great men may be mistaken, 

 as they sometimes surely are. Burns makes 

 the nightingale's notes heard in Scotland, but 



it is doubtful whether a nightingale ever crossed 

 the Roman wall. The writer of this had as 

 good an opportunity as ever Shakspeare or Mil- 

 ton had of being acquainted with the common 

 people and the common names of plants, and it is 

 chiefly this, joined with the French usage of this 

 French name, which leads to the belief that some 

 author mistakes the plant. — Ed. G. M.] 



HISTORY OF THE POTATO. 



BY L. J. TEMPLIN, HUTCHINSON, KANSAS. 



The common potato was unknown to the inhab- 

 itants of the eastern continent till after the discov- 

 ery of America by Columbus. The potato known 

 to the ancients, and that is spoken of by Shaks- 

 peare and other English writers, was not the com- 

 mon potato, but it was the sweet potato, Convolvu- 

 lus Batata. The early history of the potato is 

 involved in considerable obscurity, as the refer- 

 ences to it by the historians of those times are quite 

 meager and somewhat contradictory. A careful 

 collation and sifting of the various references to 

 this subject seem to justify the following state- 

 ments : The first reference we find to the potato in 

 connection with European history is related to the 

 first voyage of Columbus. When on the island of 

 Cuba some of his men visited the interior of that 

 island and there discovered maize and a root that 

 was used for food, and that was doubtless the po- 

 tato. On visiting the continent of South America, 

 European adventurers and travelers found the 

 potato growing both in the forests and in cultiva- 

 tion. The wild potato was found growing in the 

 Andean forests from New Grenada on the north to 

 BuenosAyres on the south. And it is now known 

 to be abundant as far north as New Mexico, in the 

 United States, where it is a common and important 

 article of diet with the Indians of that region. 

 Humboldt does not seem to have been successful 

 in finding the potato growing indigenously in some 

 portions of the country where others assert that it 

 was found. He says that " the potato is not indig- 

 enous to Peru, and that it is nowhere to be found 

 wild in the Cordilleras situated under the tropics. 

 M. Bompland and myself herborized in the back 

 and in the declivity of the Andes, from the 5° 

 north to the la^isouth, and informed ourselves from 

 persons who have examined this chain of colossal 

 mountains as far as the Le Pau and Oruro, and we 

 ascertained that in this vast extent of ground no 

 species of solanum with nutritive roots vegetates 

 spontaneously. It is true there are places not very 

 accessible, and very cold, which the natives call 



