CHAPTER I. 



THE SWEET POTATO.— (Tpomcea Batatas, Lam.) 



The Sweet Potato belongs to the Convolvulus or 

 Morning-Glory Family, (the ConvolvulacecB) , and in the 

 various revisions of this large and somewhat difficult 

 family, the Sweet Potato has been assigned to several dif- 

 ferent genera. Hence we find it in some works given as 

 Convolvulus Batatas, of Linnaeus ; G. esculenhis, and C. 

 tuberosus, of other botanists. Choisy gives it as Batatas 

 edulis ; while the latest revision of the family, by 

 Bentham and Hooker, in Genera Plantarum, places it 

 under Ipo7no?a, hence, according to accepted botanical 

 authority, the proper botanical name of the Sweet Potato 

 is: Iporncen Batatas, of Lamarck. 



The native country of tlie Sweet Potato, as with many 

 others of our cultivated plants, is still very doubtful. 

 There is very strong evidence in favor of both its East 

 Indian and American origin, but as the plant has not yet 

 been found growing wild in either country, the question 

 remains undec'uled. 



Tluit the potato mentioned by Shakespeare and contem- 

 porary writers, was this, and not the " White," or 

 " Irish " potato, there seems to be little doubt. 



The Sweet Potato is a perennial, with large, tuberous 

 roots, and creeping stems ; the leaves are very variable 

 in shape, being heart-shaped, or halberd-shaped, Avith the 

 lobes projecting, and it is not rare to find the leaves 

 deeply lobed. The flower of the Sweet Potato is, in shape, 

 like that of the common " Morning Glory," though not 

 quite so spreading ; it is of a purplish color in the throat, 

 and white on the margin. The plant rarely produces 

 flowers in the Northern States, but in the far South, 

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