HISTORY OF THE POTATO. 35 



article of food ; and it is not unimportant to note the 

 great difference that subsists in the component parts 

 of these varieties for though, in common estimation, 

 a potato may be a potato, yet we find them very differ- 

 ently compounded. The influence of different temper- 

 atures and years may cause these proportions to vary, 

 but I give them as observed in 1828. 



Black or purple, Fibre 9| 

 Prince's beauty . . do. 15 

 Horse's legs .... do. 13 



Fecula. . . 9f 

 Ditto. . . llf 

 Ditto ... 15 



Water 80=100 

 Ditto 70^ do. 

 Ditto 72 do. 



The proportion of fecula varies greatly, and as the prin- 

 ciple of nutriment is supposed to exist in this matter, 

 the value of each sort, if mere nutriment is required, 

 is indicated by this analysis. 



The potato may be considered as the most valuable 

 production that Europe has received from the continent 

 of America, and is now, as Bishop Heber informs us, 

 much esteemed in the East, and regarded as the greatest 

 benefit the country ever received from its European 

 masters. A plant that can so climatize and preserve its 

 valuable properties in such different temperatures as 

 northern Europe and Bengal, where the thermometer 

 ranges up to 90 or 100 degrees of heat, must be par- 

 ticularly endowed, and in time will probably become 

 naturalized to every region, and circulate its benefits 

 round the globe. The strenuous manner in which I 

 have lauded this root may, perhaps, excite a smile in 

 some, who only know it as a table viand ; but those 

 who have witnessed the blessings which this tuber con- 

 fers, by affording a sufficiency of food to man and beast, 

 will not be disposed to regard lightly such comforts ob- 

 tainable by their poorer neighbors. 



Our second crop to which I, alluded, and which some 

 years we grow largely, is the teasel (dipsacus fullonum), 

 a plant which is probably no native of this country, but, 

 like woad, canary-grass, &c., originally introduced by 

 some of the numerous foreign artisans, who have at va- 

 rious times sought refuge here, or been encouraged to 

 settle in England. Our woollen manufactory could 

 hardly have made any progress without this plant: the 

 constant continental wars in the earlier part of our mon- 



