COHOLLIFLOK2E. 



195 



supplied some curious details of its qualities, and of 

 the various modes in which it might be dressed for the 

 table. But the Potatoe had been known in Spain and 

 Portugal at an earlier period, and it is from the latter 

 country that we most directly derive the name by 

 which we know it. This is easily shown ; although the 

 natives of South America called the plant by the name 

 ' Openawk,' those of the South, more particularly 

 the inhabitants of the mountains of Quito, called it 

 '' Papas,' which the Spaniards corrupted into ' Battata/ 

 this again their neighbours in Portugal softened into 

 ' Ba-ta-ta ' (da terra), to which ' potato ' is a very close 

 approximation." 



This plant, the tubers of which for a long time were 

 a luxury obtainable by the rich only, now yields the 

 support of the poor, and furnishes the cheapest food 

 known ; the peasantry of Ireland almost subsist upon 

 Potatoes, and the poor of most parts of Europe find it 

 imdispeusable to their living. 



16. SCKOPIIULAKIACEJE (Digitalis purpurea) Foxglove. 

 (Veronica officinalis) Speedwell, 



Some of the members of this order 

 were formerly considered useful 

 in scrofulous complaints, espe- 

 cially the Scrophularia nodosa, 

 a common plant growing by the 

 sides of ditches, and whose 

 tuberculated roots were con- 

 sidered to resemble scrofulous 

 tumours, and therefore to be 

 the natural remedy for them. 

 The Foxglove is used as a 

 medicine and is highly poise a- 

 ous. 



Speedwell. 



o 2 



