sturtevant's notes on edible plants 547 



those grown in England, " excellently delicious and strongly nourishing." ' Potatoes are 

 said to have been introduced into New England by a colony of Presbyterian Irish, who 

 settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire, in 1719, but cultivation did not become general 

 for many years; potatoes appeared in Salem, Massachusetts, about 1762, as a field crop. 

 In 1830, Col. Morris, then in his ninetieth year, informed Watson^ that the potatoes used 

 in his early life were very inferior to those of the present ; they were called Spanish potatoes 

 and were very sharp and pungent in the throat and smell, but a better sort was received 

 from Liverpool. 



Tench Frances, of Philadelphia, first imported an improved stock, which, by frequent 

 cultivation, he much improved. About 1817, saj^ Goodrich,' the potato bore seed to 

 the amount, perhaps, of a gill to the hill; from 1842 to 1847, in the annual cultivation 

 of two and a half acres, he recollects having found but two branches, and his experience, 

 he says, has not been exceptional. In 1806, McMahon * mentions but one kind; and in 

 1832, Bridgeman ^ says there are many varieties. In 1848, nearly 100 kinds were exhibited 

 at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society; in 1876, at the Centennial Exhibition, 500 

 named varieties were shown. The potato now extends over North America to Labrador 

 and Fort Simpson, 65 north, where Richardson ' says they yield well. 



Sir J. Banks ' considers that the potato was first brought into Europe from the 

 mountainous parts of South America in the neighborhood in Quito in the early part of 

 the sixteenth century. Yet the Spanish name of battatas corresponds to the " Detatas " 

 of Peter Martyr and would indicate that these tubers came from the coast region of South 

 America; yet, strangely enough, they are now called batatas Inglezas according to Mcintosh.* 

 Bowles, in his introduction to the Natural History of Spain, is quoted by M. Droujoi de 

 Thuys as saying that the potato was first transported from Spain into Galicia and thence to 

 Italy where it was so common in the sixteenth century as to be fed to animals; but the first 

 date we find is from Nuttall,' who says that, according to Bauhin, the potato was intro- 

 duced into Europe from the moimtainous parts of Peru in the year 1590, and this strangely 

 enough too strange to be true is after the potato was known elsewhere. In Bauhin's 

 Phytopinax, 1 596, appears, according to Hallam,'" the first accurate description of the potato, 

 which he says was already cultivated in Italy. In Italy, it received the name of the 

 truffle, taratoufle, which reminds one of the description of P. Martyr. Sismondi,*' whose 

 work on agriculture was published in 1801,. says the potato, little known in Lombardy, 

 was introduced by himself into the hills of Tuscany, where it was then known only to the 



Williams, E. Virginians. 1650. Force Coll. Tracts 3: No. 11. 1844. 

 = Watson, J. F. Annals Phil. 2:487. 1845. 



Goodrich Trans. N. Y. Agr. Soc. 447. 1847. 



McMahon, B. Amer. Card. Col. 582. 1806. 

 ' Bridgeman, J. Young Card. Asst. 8$. 1857. 

 Richardson, J. Arctic Explor. 1:165. 1851. 

 ' Loudon, J. C. Enc. Agr. 845. 1866. 

 'Mcintosh, C. Book Card. 2:223. 1855. 



Nuttall, T. Gen. No. Amer. Pis. 1:128. 1818. 

 "Hallam, H. Lit. Europe 1:243. 1856. 

 "Loudon, J. C. Enc. Agr. 53. 1866. 



