382 BULLETIN No. 127. [August, 



quest, and 1585, whence the cultivation spread into Italy sometime 

 early in the seventeenth century. From here, the potato in all prob- 

 ability went to Austria, from Austria to Germany, Germany to 

 Switzerland, and from Switzerland to France. 



Spanish voyagers also probably introduced the tubers to the 

 English settlers in Virginia; at any rate they were being culti- 

 vated there before 1585, and were sent to England at the time of 

 Sir Walter Raleigh's voyages to Virginia though not by Raleigh 

 himself. From England, potato cultivation spread very rapidly to 

 Ireland which needed a cheap food crop, and by the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century, it had become one of its staples. Their uni- 

 versal use on the island from this time forward brought them their 

 common name of the Irish potato. This nickname is not to be won- 

 dered at for Ireland still leads in the use of potatoes with an annual 

 per capita consumption of twenty-five bushels, or seven times that 

 of the United States.* 



Two VARIETIES INTRODUCED 



We have seen that Bauhin wrote the first description of the 

 potato in 1596, but as he in all probability received his specimen 

 from Clusius, to the latter should be given the credit of the descrip- 

 tion of the first cultivated potatoes. The specimens described by 

 Clusius were sent to him in 1588 by Philippe Sivry, Seigneur of 

 Waldheim and Governor of Mons, who had received them from 

 Italy at the hands of the Papal Legate. The accompanying plate 

 of Clusius is from Roze's colored plate made from the original and 

 has not been available before in an English publication. Speaking 

 of his reproduction Roze says : 



"This colored ^late is a faithful reproduction from the most ancient docu- 

 ment we possess on the introduction of the potato into Europe. For the orig- 

 inal water-color which dates 1589 is kept with other writings and books of this 

 epoch (of which the authenticity is certain) in the archives of the ancient six- 

 teenth century printings and preserved in its original state at Anvers, Belgium, 

 at the Musee Plantin-Moretus. The writing on the Latin manuscript which 

 has also been reproduced from the original water-color is thus 'taratoufli a 

 Philippe de Sivry acceptum Viennae 26 Januarii 1588. Papas Peruanum Petri 

 CieQae,' and is a fac-simile of the writing of the celebrated botanist Charles de 

 L'Ecluse of Arras, more commonly known to the world under his Latin name 

 Clusius. 



"This proves to be, not the date of the reception of the water-color, repre- 

 senting a flower stalk with two potatoes which had only been sent to Charles 

 L'Ecluse in 1589 by Philip de Sivry, Seigneur de Walhain et Gouverneur de la 

 Ville Mons en Hainaut, but that of two tubers and one fruit berry of the 



*Mayo-Smith: Statistics and economics, p. 38. 



