PENTANDRIA. 123 



Bittersweet, and more than a hundred other species of less 

 note. The whole genus is however of little consequence, 

 when compared with the single species first named. 



The Potato, (Solanum tuber osum,} like tobacco, is one of the 

 native products of the New World. It appears to have been 

 discovered by Europeans in its wild, or native state, in the 

 mountainous regions of South America, near Quito, where it 

 has been lately ascertained to be still growing. How it 

 found its way from Quito to Virginia, is unknown, but from 

 Virginia it was carried to England by Sir Walter Raleigh, or 

 some of his colonists in 1586. Our name, Potato, appears to 

 have come from the Spanish Potades. The French call it 

 Pomme de Terre, apple of the earth. The Sweet Potato is of 

 a different genus, and was known long before the discovery 

 of America. Gough, an old English author, says that Pota- 

 toes were first planted in Europe by Sir Walter Raleigh, on 

 his estate near Cork. For many years they were used as 

 delicacies, and not as common food. So late as Bradley's 

 time, who died in 1732, Potatoes were reckoned inferior to 

 radishes and skirrets. During the last thirty or forty years, 

 the use of this root as common food has increased rapidly, 

 until, at the present time, it is common in most of the colder 

 parts of Europe, in North and South America, and in Austra- 

 lasia. But in Spain and the East and West Indies, it is little 

 cultivated. The varieties of the Potato are almost as nume- 

 rous as the districts where they are cultivated, and new varie- 

 ties may at any time be produced by sowing the seed con- 

 tained in the balls which grow on the vines, and which at 

 first will produce only small tubers, but these being planted 

 will yield a full crop the fourth year. 



Tomato, (Solanum lycopersicum.) Love apple. This is 

 an annual plant, with jagged, or unequally winged leaves, 

 which grows two or three feet high, and about the blossoms 

 and upper leaves, appears somewhat like the potato. It bears 

 a large glossy berry, deeply furrowed, which is at first green, 

 but when ripe, turns of a beautiful red, similar to the great pep- 

 per, (Capsicum.) This berry, which is sometimes two inches 

 in diameter, has been long employed in Italy and France, as an 

 'ngredient in sauces, stews and soups, and in this country it 



When was the potato first carried to England 1 How may new varie- 

 ties of the potato be produced ? What is said of the uses of the tomato 

 and egg-plant ? 



