HISTORY OF THE POTATO. 33 



them in his garden near London as a curiosity, in 

 the year 1597. All the multiform tales which we 

 have of its introduction by Hawkins, shipwrecked 

 vessels, Raleigh, and his boiling the apples instead 

 of the roots, are merely traditional fancies, or 

 modern inventions, with little or no probability for 

 support. There is some possibility that Sir Walter 

 Raleigh might have introduced the potato into 

 Ireland from America, when he returned in 1584, 

 or rather after his last voyage, eleven years later; 

 but if so, it was much confined in its culture, and 

 slowly acquired estimation even in that island, for 

 Dr. Campbell does not admit that it was known 

 there before the year 1610, fifteen years after Sir 

 Walter's final return. In England it seems to have 

 been yet more tardy in obtaining notice, for the 

 first mention which I can find wherein this tuber is 

 regarded as possessing any virtue, is by that great 

 man, Sir Francis Bacon, who investigated nature 

 from the " cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the 

 hyssop that springeth out of the wall : he spake also 

 of beasts, and of fowls, and of fishes, and of creep- 

 ing things," in his history of " Life and Death," 

 written, probably, in retirement after his disgrace. 

 He observes, that " if ale was brewed with one- 

 fourth part of some fat root, such as the potado, to 

 three-fourths of grain, it would be more conducive 

 to longevity than with grain alone." It was thus full 

 twenty -four years after its being planted by Gerard 

 that the nutritive virtues ofthis root appear to have 

 been understood ; but with us there seems to have 



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