KITCHEN GARDENING UNDER JAMES I. 121 



brought the potato back with them from the New World, in 

 1585 or 1586, is a fact. But it was also brought to Europe by 

 the Spaniards between 1580 and 1585. The potato has been 

 found in a wild state only in Chih, but it is probable that before 

 the arrival of the Spaniards in America the plant had spread 

 by cultivation into Peru and New Granada. From thence it 

 was most likely introduced, in the latter half of the sixteenth 

 century, into that part of the United States now known as 

 Virginia and North Carohna, and there discovered by Raleigh, 

 unless he found it among the provisions of some Spanish ship 

 captured by him on its way from Chili or Peru. Gerard gives 

 a picture and account of the " potatoe of Virginia " {Solanum 

 tuberosum) which " he had received " from that place. The 

 original species still exists in cultivation in Europe, and differs 

 but slightly from the ordinarj^ varieties now grown. Gerard's 

 description of the flower and root is accurate. He calls it " a 

 meate for pleasure," being " either rosted in the embers, or 

 boiled and eaten with oile, vinegar and pepper, or dressed any 

 other way by the hand of some cunning in cookery." He thus 

 describes the tuber : " Thicke, fat and tuberous, not much 

 differing either in shape, colour, or taste from the common pota- 

 toes, save that the rootes thereof are not so great nor long, some 

 of them round as a ball, some ouall or egge fashion, some longer 

 and others shorter, which knobbie rootes are fastened into the 

 stalkes with an infinite number of threddie strings." " The 

 common potato " he refers to is at first sight puzzling, but he 

 really means the Batata or Sweet Potato, Ipomcea Batatas. 

 The origin of this plant is also a subject of discussion ; America 

 and Eastern Asia both lay claim to it, but the strongest evidence 

 seems to point to its introduction from the New World. 

 Christopher Columbus is supposed to have brought the plant 

 back to Queen Isabella, and early in the sixteenth century it 

 was cultivated in Spain. Both Gerard and Parkinson grew it 

 in their gardens, but as it was always killed by the frost at the 

 end of September, they never saw it in flower. Sweet potatoes 

 were eaten in various ways, roasted, sopped in wine, or cooked 

 with prunes, and conserves were made of them. They were 

 sometimes called Skirrets of Peru. In the Index to the 

 Theatrum Botanicum of Parkinson the reference is to " Potatoes 



