440 
try. This supposes at least seve- 
ral years of cultivation. This ve- 
getable was pointed out about the 
end of the sixteenth century by 
several Spanish writers, as culti- 
vated in the environs of Quito, 
where it was called papas, and 
where different kinds of dishes 
were prepared from it: and, what 
seems decisive, Banister and Clay- 
ton, who have investigated the in- 
digenous plants of Virginia with 
great care, donot reckon the po- 
tatoe among the number; and 
Banister mentions expressly that 
he had for 12 years sought in vain 
for that plant; whileDombey found 
it in a wild state on all the Cor- 
dilleras, where the Indians sti!l 
apply it to the same purposes as 
at the time of the original disco- 
very. 
_ The mistake may have been ow- 
ing to this circumstance, that Vir- 
ginia produces several other tuber- 
ose plants, which from imperfect 
descriptions may have been con-. 
founded with the potatoe. Bauhin, 
for example, took for the potatoe 
the plant called openawk by Tho- 
mas Harriot. There are likewise 
in Virginia ordinary potatoes ; but 
the anonymous author of the his- 
tory of that country says, that they 
have nothing in common with the 
potatoe of Ireland and England, 
which is our pomme de terre. 
Be this as it may, that admira- 
ble vegetable was received ina 
very different manner by the na- 
tions of Europe. The Irish seem 
to have taken advantage of them 
first; for at an early period we 
find the plant distinguished by the 
name of Jrish potatoe. But in 
France they were at first proscrib- 
ed. Bauhin states that in his time 
the use of them had been prohi- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1815. 
bited in Burgundy, because it was 
supposed that they produced the 
leprosy. 
It is difficult to believe that a 
plant so innocent, so agreeable, 
so productive, which requires so 
little trouble to be rendered fit for 
food ; that a root so well defended 
against the intemperance of the 
seasons; that a plant which by a 
singular privilege unites in itself 
every advantage, without any other 
inconvenience than that of not 
lasting all the year, but which even 
owes to this circumstance the ad- 
ditional advantage that it cannot 
be hoarded up by monopolists— 
that such a plant should have re- 
quired two centuries in order to 
overcome the most puerile preju- 
dices. 
Yet we ourselves have been 
witnesses of the fact. The Eng- 
lish brought the potatoe into 
Flanders during the wars of Louis 
XIV. It was thence spread, but 
very sparingly, over some parts of 
France. Switzerland had put a 
higher value on it, and had found 
it very good. Several of our 
southern provinces had planted it 
in imitation of that country at the 
period of the scarcities, which 
were several times repeated during 
the last years of Louis XV. Tur- 
got in particular rendered it com- 
mon in the Limousin and the An- 
goumois, over which he was in- 
tendant ; and it was to be expect- 
ed that in ashort time this new 
branch of subsistence would be 
spread over the kingdom, when 
some old physicians renewed a- 
gainst it the prejudices of the 16th 
century. 
It was no longer accused of pro- 
ducing leprosy, but fevers. The 
scarcities had produced in the 
