266 On the Native Country of the Wild Potato, Sfc. 



Under such circumstances, and with such a prospect, it is 

 surely a paramount duty of those who have the means and 

 power of attending to the subject, to exert themselves in select- 

 ing and obtaining varieties of potatoes, not only with superior 

 qualities in flavour and productiveness, but which shall be less 

 subject to injury by changes of weather when in growth, and 

 which may possess the quality of keeping for a length of time, 

 either in their natural state, or under the operation of artificial 

 treatment. This is one of the objects to which the care and 

 energies of the Horticultural Society ought to be directed. 

 Under its auspices, and by its means, some new kinds have been 

 brought into notice, but a wide field of exertion is still before it. 

 With the potatoes cultivated in South America at the present 

 time we are very little acquainted ; there is one especially which 

 has been heard of, but which has not yet reached us, known at 

 Lima as the yellow or golden potato, and which is reported 

 to be far superior in flavour to any now grown in Europe. 



On the subject of the potato there is also a point of curiosity 

 and much interest open to those who have leisure and opportu- 

 nity of conducting the investigation. Several accounts of its 

 introduction into Europe, and especially into Great Britain and 

 Ireland, are before the public, differing from each other, and 

 none exactly correct ; the entire truth is probably to be extracted 

 from the whole, and ought to be supported by references to the 

 original authorities for the different facts. To these, in order 

 to render the early history of the potato complete, an account 

 of its original discovery, and the observations made on it by 

 the first and early visitors to the shores of South America, 

 should be obtained; and this research would probably lead to 

 a detection of the circumstances attending its first introduction 

 into Virginia, which is at present involved in obscurity. 



