THE TROPICAL ZONE. 79 



inner pink, with every intermediate shade in 

 those between, and exhaling a delicious per- 

 fume. 



The potato appears to have its indigenous 

 country in the Cordilleras of South America, and 

 possibly in Virginia also ; but it has been now 

 so generally cultivated in both places for so 

 many centuries, that it is very difficult now to 

 speak with certainty as to its native habitat. 

 It still seems indigenous in Chili and Peru, 

 where it is a native of the sea-strand, and is never 

 found naturally more than four hundred feet 

 above its level. In its wild state the root is 

 small and bitter, and the stem becomes woody 

 and bristly from age. This is one of the many 

 instances in which cultivation has rendered 

 some of the most unpromising plants useful to 

 man. It appears that it was introduced into 

 Europe by the Spaniards from Quito, early in 

 the sixteenth century ; but not into our own 

 country till 1586, when it was brought from 

 Virginia by sir Walter Ealeigh. It was not, 

 however, till more than one hundred years after 

 its first introduction that it came into anything 

 like general cultivation, and nearly one hun- 

 dred years more elapsed before much attention 

 was paid to its varieties, or a large extent of 

 ground employed in its cultivation. A great 

 degree of reluctance seems to have been felt by 

 the common people to cultivate this useful 

 vegetable. Frederick the Great even compelled 

 the Pomeranians to accept the benefit. It does 

 not succeed in cultivation in the plains of the 



