4 THE POTATO, 



and sugar are so nearly the same that the former is easily 

 converted into the latter, the potato yields a spirit equal to 

 that of malt by distillation, and a wine or beer by the 

 fermentative process," 



Another Account. We next turn to the " Treasury 

 of Botany," dated 1884, an invaluable standard work of 

 reference on matters botanical, w T here we are told that 

 ' The native country of the potato (Solanum tuberosum), 

 and the date of its introduction into Britain, have been 

 subjects of much discussion. There can be no doubt of its 

 being indigenous to various parts of South America 

 plants in a wild state having been found on the Peruvian 

 coast, as well as on the sterile mountains of Central Chili 

 and Buenos Ayres. The Spaniards are believed to have 

 first brought it to Europe, from Quito, in the early part of 

 the sixteenth century. It afterwards found its way into 

 Italy, and from thence it was carried to Mons, in Belgium, 

 by one of the attendants of the Pope's legate. In 1598 it 

 was sent from Mons to the celebrated Clusius at Vienna, 

 who states that in a short time it spread throughout Ger- 

 many. 



" The first potatoes that reached this country were 

 brought from Virginia by the colonists sent out by Sir 

 Walter Raleigh in A.D. 1584, and who returned in 1586. 

 They were planted on Sir Walter Raleigh's estate near 

 Cork, and were used for food in Ireland long before they 

 were even known or cultivated in England. Gerarde had 

 a plant in his garden in Holborn, and has given a figure of 

 it in his Herbal, published in 1597, under the name of 

 Batata virginiana. He recommends the tubers to be eaten 

 as a delicate dish, and not as common food. 



" In the time of James the First, they were so rare as 

 to cost two shillings a pound, and are mentioned in 1619 

 among the articles provided for the royal household. In 

 1633, when their valuable properties had become more 

 generally known, they were deemed worthy of notice by 

 the Royal Society, which took measures to encourage their 



