MAY 93 



in many classical writings. Ovid mentions it in his 

 Remedium amoris as food to be avoided : 



' Nee minus erucas aptum est vitare salaces.' 



Martial recommends its use as a spur to sluggish 

 husbands : 



' Concitat ad Venerera tardos eruca maritos ' 



and Columella advises that it be sown near the effigy 

 of Priapus in gardens. It is clear, therefore, that 

 whether Shakespeare or some one else was responsible 

 for the mistaken name, Falstaff ought to have invoked 

 a shower of ' erucas ' instead of ' eringoes.' After all, 

 the matter is only of literary interest. The prescription 

 in either case is empirical that is quack ; and neither 

 benefit nor injury would ensue to anybody who should 

 be simpleton enough to follow it. 



It can never now be ascertained whether Shake- 

 speare, in causing Falstaff to invoke the sky to rain 

 potatoes, had in view the Spanish potato (Convolvulus 

 batatas), or the plant which Gerard grew in his garden 

 as a curiosity in 1597 (the year before the publication of 

 the Merry Wives). The question is of slightest import- 

 ance, but it serves to remind one of what is very easily 

 forgotten, namely how relatively recent is European 

 esteem for the potato as an esculent. We have grown 

 to regard potatoes in one form or another as not less in- 

 dispensable at dinner than the teapot at breakfast ; yet 

 for a full century after its introduction to this country 

 the potato was regarded and grown only on account of 

 its supposed restorative powers as a stimulant drug. 

 It is mentioned in Mortimer's Gardener's Kalendar for 



