33 MEMOIR OF 



late as 1707, be it observed) may be adduced in 

 confirmation of this fact. In speaking of the 

 great variety of food mankind is sustained by, he 

 says,* " Many live on the Irish patatas, a sort of 

 Solanum, on which, I have heard, they live in the 

 mines of Potosi, and in Ireland? and in his 

 Account of Jamaica Plants, f he describes the 

 potato in the following terms: " The root is 

 tuberous ; for shape and bigness very uncertain ; 

 but being for the most part oblong, as big as a 

 hen's egg ; from a swelled middle tapering to both 

 extremes ; yellow and sweet within ; when roasted, 

 tasting like a boiled chestnut, and having many 

 fibrils by which it draws its nourishment. The 

 stalks are green, a little covered, and creeping for 

 many feet in length along the surface of the 

 earth, and putting forth leaves and flowers at 

 every inch's distance," &c. " In four months 

 after planting, they are ready to be gathered, the 

 ground being filled with them, and if they con- 

 tinue therein any longer, they are eaten by 

 worms." 



who had resided all her life near the road from London to 

 Epsom, states, that " in her youth she used to look for- 

 ward with much pleasure to the quarter days, when the 

 tenants dined at her father's house, because on these days 

 only was she treated with a dish of potatoes." 



* Introduction to Natural History of Jamaica, vol. i. 

 p. 21. 



t Natural History of Jamaica, vol. i. p. 150. 



