514 



THE POTATO 



"In England the potato at first met with Kttle 

 favor, its relationship to the deadly nightshade 

 causing it to be regarded with suspicion. Sir 

 Walter Raleigh endeavored to interest Queen 

 Elizabeth in the newcomer, and even succeeded to 

 the extent of getting a dish of cooked tubers 

 placed on the royal table. Courtesy forbade the 

 guests to refuse to partake of the new dish, but 

 their dislike was so obvious, and so assiduously 

 did they circulate tales regarding the poisonous 

 nature of the tubers, that we do not read of the 

 experiment being repeated. In Ireland the potato 

 met with a better reception, and its culture was 

 far advanced and understood in that country be- 

 fore England took the matter seriously in hand. 

 Not until 1663 do we read of potato culture be- 

 coming at all general in England, but in that year 

 it received a great impetus, owing to the eflforts of 

 the Royal Society, which were prompted, it is said, 

 by a recognition of the food value of the tubers in 

 time of famine. 



"The original tubers would appear to have been 

 round, and about the size of a large walnut. 

 Herriot called the potato Openwak, and Gerarde, 

 who pictured the plant in his famous 'Herbal' in 

 1597, gave it the scientific name of Bata Virginia. 

 To Gaspard Bauhin, a celebrated botanist of 

 Basle, belongs the credit of giving the plant its 

 present and universally recognized scientific name, 

 Solarium tuberosum. This was about 1590, and it 

 does not appear that the name then bestowed 

 has ever been disputed. There are at least six 

 tuber-bearing species of Solanum, but in the 

 opinion of Mr. J. G. Baker, the famous Kew botan- 

 ist, all the varieties in cultivation have originated 

 from one species — S. tuberosum. 



