THE POTATO— SAFFOED 511 



that "round potatoes" {Solanum tuberosum) were found in Vir- 

 ginia when first visited by the English.^ 



It is surprising that Jefferson should have made this mistake; 

 for he may be called Virginia's historian, and he was especially in- 

 terested in all things pertaining to food plants and their culture. 

 Still more surprising is the mistake of Schoolcraft, one of our most 

 reliable authorities on the history and customs of the American 

 Indians. In an oflicial report published by the State of New York 

 in 1846 he makes the following statement : " The potato was cer- 

 tainly indigenous [to America]. Sir Walter Raleigh in his efforts 

 at colonization had it brought from Virgina under the original 

 name of ' Openawg,' But none of the North American tribes are 

 known to have cultivated it. They dig it up like other indigenous 

 edible roots from the forest, but it has long been introduced into 

 their villages and spread over the northern latitudes, far beyond 

 Ihe present limit of Zea maize." "* 



The persistence of erroneous stories regarding the potato is shown 

 in the following quotation from a recent standard work of refer- 

 ence, under the heading potato, " commonly known as the ' Irish, 

 white, or round ' potato." " It seems to have been introduced into 

 Europe as early as 1505. Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585 is said to 

 have brought back the potato from a new country. Recent investi- 

 gations, however, seem to give the credit of introducing the potato 

 into England to Sir Francis Drake in 1586. As Batatas Virginiana 

 it was figured and described by Gerard in 1597. It is probable 

 that these circumstances led erroneously to giving the credit of 

 introducing the potato to Raleigh instead of to Sir John Hawkins." 

 And farther on in the same work, where it is assumed that the po- 

 tato is really identical with the openawk of Virginia, appears tlie 

 following : " The tubers of the wild S. tuherosum were small and 

 attracted little attention. Heriot, in his Report on Virginia, de- 

 scribes one plant ' with roots as large as a walnut and others much 

 larger. They grow in damp soil, many hanging together, as if 

 tied on ropes.' The modern potato has been bred so that the hills 

 contain four to six tubers of uniform size, weighing perhaps 2 

 pounds." ^ 



In a publication of more recent date appears the following : " In 

 1565, Hawkins found potatoes at Santa Fe de Bogota and carried 

 some thence. * * * It is quite possible that Hawkins carried 

 the potato to North America in 1505, when he relieved the famine 

 among the French on the banks of the River May, now St. John's, 



a Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, in Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 8 : 225. 1SS4. 

 * Schoolcraft, II. U. Census of the Iroquois. New York State Documents, No. 2-i. 

 p. 12. 1846. 



^ Bailey's Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, 5 :27G7, 2708. 1910. 



