HISTORY, CULTURE, AND DISEASES OF THE 

 POTATOE. 



PART I. 



CHAPTER I. 



Some Account of the Early History of the Potatoe; its In- 

 troduction into Great Britain and other European Coun- 

 tries. 



THE Potatoe now in use, (Solanum tuberosum,) was 

 brought to England by the Colonists sent out by Sir Walter 

 Raleigh, under the authority of his patent, granted by Queen 

 Elizabeth, " for discovering and planting new countries, not 

 possessed by Christians," which passed the great seal in 

 1584. Some of Sir Walter's ships sailed in the same year; 

 others, on board one of which was Thomas Herriot, after- 

 wards known as a mathematician, in 1585 ; the whole, how- 

 ever, returned, and probably brought with them the Potatoe, 

 on the 27th of July, 1586. 



This Mr. Thomas Herriot, who was probably sent out to 

 examine the country, and report to his employers the nature 

 and produce of the soil, wrote an account of it, which is 

 printed in De Bry's Collection of Voyages, vol. I. In this 

 account, under the article of roots, page 17, he describes a 



