1865.] KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. 35 



in diameter. The tubers or potatoes produced by the plant are 

 simply subterranean branches, arrested and thickened in their 

 growth, in place of being elongated. The common idea that all 

 the subterranean portions of a plant are roots, is quite erroneous ; 

 for the production of leaf-buds or leaf-scars is the distinguishing 

 characteristic of a stem wherever situated ; and that the tuber or 

 potato is a true stem is proved by the eyes on its surface, which are 

 true leaf-buds. Hence the potato is propagated by cutting the 

 tuber into pieces, when each piece, provided it has an eye, wil 

 grow and become an independent plant. 



The potato is a native of South America, and is found in abun- 

 dance wild in the mountainous regions of Chili, Peru, and the 

 neighborhood of Buenos Ayres. Its presence in Mexico, Virginia, 

 and the Carolinas, where it was subsequently found, is probably 

 not very ancient. It is thought that it may have been introduced 

 there from South America by the first Spanish settlers. The 

 potato was first grown by Sir Walter Raleigh, at Youghal, in Ire- 

 land, in 1586. The samples planted came from the Carolinas. 

 The gardener who planted the tubers thought that the green po- 

 tato apples were the potatoes, and carried them to his master, ex- 

 pressing his great disgust at such produce. Sir Walter, pretend- 

 ing to sympathize, told him to dig up the useless weeds, and throw 

 them away. The gardener, in rooting out the plants, found the 

 true potatoes, more than a bushel of them, and hurried back to his 

 master in a very different humor, to show him the samples, and 

 make known his discovery. 



The soil and climate of Ireland are very favorable to the growth 

 of good potatoes, and the plant appears to have rapidly grown into 

 favor in Ireland, and was cultivated there as food long before its 

 value was acknowledged in Great Britain. 



In both England and Scotland, a prejudice against it existed 

 owing to the poisonous character of the plants of the natural order 

 to which it belongs and the resemblance of its flowers to those of 

 the woody nightshade (Solarium dulcamara), an extremely com- 

 mon plant, well known to be poisonous. Almost everywhere the 

 same prejudice prevailed, in France especially ; and it was not un- 

 til a time of great scarcity during the Revolution, that its culture 

 in that country became general. 



For more than a century and a half after its cultivation by Sir 

 Walter Raleigh in Ireland, the potato was cultivated in flower 

 gardens only, in both England and Scotland. Even in 1725 the 



