46 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



practised, with every appearance of ancient usage, in 

 the temperate regions extending from Chili to New 

 Granada, at altitudes varying with the latitude. This 

 appears from the testimony of all the early travellers, 

 among whom I shall name Acosta for Peru, 1 and Pedro 

 Gieca, quoted by de 1'Ecluse, 2 for Quito. 



In the eastern temperate region of South America, 

 on the heights of Guiana and Brazil, for instance, the 

 potato was not known to the aborigines, or if they 

 were acquainted with a similar plant, it was Solarium 

 Commersonii, which has also a tuberous root, and is 

 found wild in Montevideo and in the south of Brazil. 

 The true potato is certainly now cultivated in the latter 

 country, but it is of such recent introduction that it has 

 received the name of the English Batata. 3 According to 

 Humboldt it was unknown in Mexico, 4 a fact confirmed 

 by the silence of subsequent authors, but to a certain 

 degree contradicted by another historical fact. It is said 

 that Sir Walter Raleigh, or rather Thomas Herriott, his 

 companion in several voyages, brought back to Ireland, 

 in 1585 or 1586, some tubers of the Virginian potato. 5 

 Its name in its own country was openawk. From 

 Herriott's description of the plant, quoted by Sir Joseph 

 Banks, 6 there is no doubt that it was the potato, and not 

 the batata, which at that period was sometimes con- 

 founded with it. Besides, Gerard 7 tells us that he 

 received from Virginia the potato which he cultivated 

 in his garden, and of which he gives an illustration 

 which agrees in all points with Solanum tuberosum. 

 He was so proud of it that he is represented, in his 

 portrait at the beginning of the work, holding in his 

 hand a flowering branch of this plant. 



1 Acosta, p. 163, verso. 



2 De 1'Ecluse (or Clusius), Rariarum Plantarum Historiai, 1601, lib. 

 4, p. Ixxix., with illustration. 



3 De Martius, Flora Brasil., vol. x. p. 12. 



4 Von Humboldt, Nouvelle Espagne, edit. 2, vol. ii. p. 451 ; Essai sur la 

 Gdographie des Plantes, p. 29. 



5 At that epoch Virginia was not distinguished from Carolina. 



6 Banks, Trans. Hort. Soc., 1805, vol. i. p. 8. 



r Gerard, Herbal, 1597, p. 781, with illustration. 



