518 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



Sir Walter Scott : 



I Intend writing a somewhat in whit-h Sir "Walter Raleigh shall be a dis- 

 tinguished and prominent character; and I promise you the potato shall not 

 be forgotten. The discovery of that root is alone sufficient to immortalize the 

 hero who lost his head so unjustly on Tower Hill. 



Father Proiit may be excused from accepting this legend as gos- 

 pel ; for he was essentially a man of letters ; but we find it to have 

 been accepted also by a professional horticulturist in a monograph 

 on the potato, a copy of which was kindly sent me by the distin- 

 guished authority on potato diseases, Dr. Otto Appel, Direldor der 

 Biologischen Reichsanstalt f iir I^and und Forst-Wirthschaft at Ber- 

 lin-Dahlem. " Most assuredly," says the author, " do I think that 

 the descendants of Raleigh might be proud of a sprig of potato foli- 

 age on their coat armor, as those of Appel de Kapoesang are of its 

 tubers, with which the Austrian heralds have charged their 

 shields." ^' 



Sir Walter's fame has never been perpetuated in the maimer sug- 

 gested above. Worse than this, the credit for its introduction was 

 transferred to Sir. Francis Drake and a monument to him was 

 actually erected and still stands in the city of OfTenburg, Baden, a 

 photograph of vvhich, received through the kindness of Doctor 

 Appel, is herewith reproduced (pi. 5). 



The persistence of potato legends among literary people of ro- 

 mantic temperament is not surprising. They would naturally resent 

 the iconoclastic destruction of a good story ; but it is remarkable that 

 in very recent works dealing Avith agricultural history these tales 

 should be taken seriously. I have already referred to the account 

 of the potato published in a modern cyclopedia of Horticulture. 

 Following is a quotation from a more recent work on the historj'^ 

 of American agriculture under the heading " How potatoes were 

 brought to England : " 



Sir Francis Drake in 1.5S4-S6 conducted a piratical expedition to the AVest 

 Indies. He captured several towns and cities and held each until its release 

 was purchased by the inhabitants and aUso seized and plundered several 

 Spanish ships. For some reason, eirher fearing capture by the Spaniards, 

 if he returned to Europe by the usual route, or because of sickness among 

 his men as think some authorities, he cruised up the Atlantic coast to return 

 by a more northern route. He found the second Ilaleigh colony on Roanoke 

 Island in a destitute condition and took the survivors back to England with 

 him. Drake and Raleigh were old friends. Raleigh was interested in agri- 

 culture and had then recently acquired a largo estate near Cork, in Ireland. 

 It is a natural supposition that Drake had obtained the potatoes from the 



"A footnote in this little volume calls attention to the fact that Appel do Kapoesang 

 was the first successful cultivator of the potato In Austria. See Johnson, George W., 

 The potato : Its culture, uses, and history, p. 3. London, 1S47. 



