Unfounded Rumour of a New Sjjecies of Potato. 515 



which bids fair not merely to prove far more profitable in 

 cultivation than any other member of the vegetable kingdom 

 in any part of the earth, but at the same time seems destined 

 at no distant period to be the means of supplying the civilized 

 world with one of its most vitally necessary articles of food, 

 by means of free white labour, without the assistance of 

 slavery !* 



Another plant, which it seems likely might be advan- 

 tageously introduced into the southern districts of Europe, is 



the best results. A large quantity of seeds which were sent a year ago to one of the 

 members of the Novara Expedition by M. de Montigny, had been made use of to 

 institute a series of experiments in cultivation, in those parts of the Empire, the 

 climatic concUtions of which promised to be most favourable for the growth of the 

 Sor(jho. 



* During our stay at Shanghai we also made inquiries as to an alleged new species of 

 potato, concerning which there have been current for years such contradictory accounts 

 in the European and American journals, that the foreign community of Shanghai was 

 beset with inquiries from all parts of the world, begging for more accurate information 

 as to this newly-discovered tuber, which promised to supply a much-needed substitute 

 for the apparently effete, worn-out, disease-smitten potato of Peru. No one, how- 

 ever, could furnish us with the slightest information on the subject, and ultimately 

 it became apparent that the rumours hitherto current were founded on an eiToneous 

 impression. It would seem, according to the opinion of Mr. Fortune, that the rumour 

 first arose from mistaking for a new sort of potato, the CaUadmm escidcntum, w hich 

 is quite commonly exposed for sale in the streets of Shanghai, and the small tubers 

 of which, both in flavour and external appearance, resemble those of the potato, 

 when, without taking the slightest fm-ther trouble to inquire into the matter, the 

 pretended new discovery, fi*aught with such important results for the poorer classes, 

 was duly trumpeted to the entire world. In no part of China hitherto accessible was 

 there at the time of our visit any other description of potato in use than the common 

 Peruvian. Officers of the English and American navies, who at the time of the first 

 Peace of Tien-Tsin were eating potatoes in the Gulf of PetcheU, assured us that 

 they were precisely identical with those that have so long been acclimatized in 

 Europe. Of edible tubers there are at Shanghai, besides potatoes, the yam {Dioscorca 

 sp.) and the Yucca {Jatrophu sp.). 



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