CHAPTER XVI. 



POTATO (Solanum tuberosum.) JERUSA 

 LEM ATICHOKE (Helianthus tuberosus.) 



458*. POTATO. This well known, and till lately, most use 

 ful esculent, belongs to the botanical family of Solanece, or the 

 Night-shade Tribe, of which many of the species are poison 

 ous. The potato itself, in an uncooked state, is, to a certain ex 

 tent, injurious to human beings ; and if kept till spring, in a 

 dark place, a new chemical alkaline principle called Solanine is 

 formed in the shoots, which is a powerful poison. (For analy- 

 sis^see Liebig s Animal Chemistry, note 38.) 



439. As the potato has much diminished in value as a field ciop, 

 and there is no prospect at present of the Hot being lemedied, we shall 

 say but little abort it, considering it rather as interesting to the 

 gardener than the farmer. 



460. It is a native of South America, and is still found wild 

 in Chili. 



In 1545, a Slave merchant, John Hawkins, introduced the potato from 

 New Grenada into Ireland. Fro.Ti Ireland the plant passed to Belgium 

 in 1590. It was neglected in England till introduced by Sir Walter 

 Raleigh in the beginning of the 17th century ; and was not in general 

 cultivation in Scotland till near the end of the eighteenth century. 

 When the potato came from Virginia into England, for the second time, 

 it was alrendy disseminated over Spain and Italy. It has b^en ascer- 

 taineu that this root has been cultivated on the great scale in Lancashire, 

 England, since 1684; in Saxony, since 1717; in Prussia in 1738. In 

 1710, it brgan to spread in Germany, but the famines of 1771 and 1772 

 seemed necessary to lead the Germans to cultivate it upon the great 

 scale. In less than two centuries it has literally overspread the eartb ; 

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