200 



Garden and Forest. 



[April 23, 1890. 



terraces the Peruvians cultivated at different heights the fruits 

 of the tropics, the Indian Corn and the "Papas," or Potato. 

 How long the Papas had been redeemed from its wild state it 

 is impossible now to determine; but it will answer our pur- 

 pose to know that the tuber grows abundantly over a long 

 range of the Pacific slope, and that it can be acclimated and per- 

 fected by a few years of cultivation. The character of the 

 wild Peruvian Potato was tested in 1828 by a party of officers 

 attached to the United States frigate " Brandywine," as recently 

 related to me by Dr. W. S. W. Ruschenberger, U. S. N. The 

 vessel was lying in the Port of Callao, and the party visited the 

 island of San Lorenzo, about a mile and a half from the town, 

 climbed its declivity to an elevation of about 1,200 feet, dug up 

 a quantity of wild potatoes, carried them aboard ship and had 

 them cooked. They were found bitter to the taste and much 

 inferior to the tubers perfected by cultivation. These wild 

 potatoes were larger than those usually found in North 

 A merica, which are rarely beyond the size of marbles. They were 

 from two to two and a quarter inches long, of a flattened ovoid 

 form and indented with eyes. San Lorenzo is a barren island 

 about seven miles long and three-fourths of a mile wide, and 

 rises to an elevation of about 1,400 feet. The Potato plants 

 were dwarfed resemblances of their cultivated and improved 

 descendants. Would it not be well to obtain and grow some 

 of the potatoes of this island for hybridization with our more 

 delicate varieties ? 



The Peruvian Potato was first carried from its native soil to 

 Spain by Hieronymus Cardan. Pedro de Cieca, of Leon, pub- 

 lished at Antwerp in 1554 an account of his seventeen years 

 of life and adventures in Peru, in which he states that the 

 Potato was at that time grown in Italy. Carolus Clusius, of 

 Aras, a physician and botanist, wrote in 1583 that the Potato 

 was then extensively cultivated in Italy. The tuber was there- 

 fore under cultivation in southern Europe long before it 

 reached England from Virginia, and was grown in Spain as 

 early as the year 1550. 



Early navigators found the Potato under cultivation by the 

 Indians of Virginia, by whom it was called the *' Openawk ; " 

 this was, no doubt, a North American variety disseminated by 

 the Indian tribe. Mr. Thomas Hariot, a member of the col- 

 ony sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh to Virginia in 1585, is 

 credited with having taken the first potato over to England 

 in 1586, in a vessel commanded by Sir Richard Grenville. Mr. 

 Hariot was a man of education, and devoted his attention to 

 making discoveries and observations regarding the country, 

 its commodities, and the nature and manners of its inhab- 

 itants, which he described in a book published in 1588. The 

 potatoes he took over were given to Sir Walter Raleigh, who 

 had them planted in his estate near Cork, Ireland, probably in 

 1587. The Potato was not cultivated in the United States by 

 foreign settlers directly from Virginia tubers, but from Irish 

 and Spanish stock, produced respectively from Virginian and 

 Peruvian Potatoes. A colony of Scotch-Irish who settled in 

 Londonderry, New Hampshire, in 1719, brought over and 

 planted the former, and the latter were introduced at a later 

 period, under the name of " Bilboas." These were larger, 

 and were known in Pennsylvania as "Spanish Potatoes"; 

 they had a pungent taste and odor, and neither variety was at 

 all popular. The Irish stock was a small, bright yellow kid- 

 ney tuber, a decided improvement upon the wild variety, but less 

 so than the best potato of to-day is an improvement upon it. 



The botanical name of the Potato plant was first given it 

 in 1596 by Professor Caspar Bauhin, in his " Prodromos 

 Theatri Botanici," in which he called it the " Solanum tubero- 

 sum esculentum." In England it bore the title of the " Virginian 

 or American Potato." The first picture of the plant appeared 

 in the "Herbal" of John Gerarde, surgeon, in 1597, under the 

 title of " Papus orbicularis." Gerarde had a large botanic 

 garden in Holborn, London, one of the first of the kind in 

 Europe, in which he grew both white and sweet Potatoes. 

 The latter appear also in his "Herbal" as the " Sisarum 

 Peruvianum, or Batata Hispanorum." 



White potatoes were of slow introduction in the United 

 States, partly from their taste, but more from an idea among 

 working people that they were a slow poison, and that their daily 

 use would prove fatal to the consumer in about five years. This 

 erroneous notion was prevalent for a number of years, until 

 it was finally broken up by the example of educated and wiser 

 people. Had the potato of a hundred and fifty years ago been 

 as inviting to the palate as is that of to-day, the poison idea 

 would have had but little weight. There is a curious incon- 

 sistency in the human race with regard to the fear of poison- 

 ous articles. The potato, the tomato and the egg plant 

 were all, in their early days, suspected of being poisonous, 

 and this groundless idea was enough to keep many people 



from eating them ; but why did not the same persons take 

 alarm at the poison of whisky, tobacco, opium and other 

 liquids and solids not necessary to health and unquestionably 

 containing a poisonous excitant ? At the very period when 

 the prejudice against the potato was the most active in this 

 city, the Grand Jury reported that the places where intoxicat- 

 ing drinks were sold were nearly equal to one-tenth of the 

 houses in the town. The craving for excitants knows no fear 

 of consequences ; while, at the same time, the desire for food 

 is discriminating and suspicious.— From a paper read before the 

 Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, by Robert P. Harris, M.D. 



Plant Note. 

 Cattleya Skinneri. 



HPHE illustration on page 201 represents a large specimen of 

 *■■ this beautiful Cattleya, from a photograph taken in its 

 native country by the collector, when more than 800 flow- 

 ers were fully expanded, with a number of buds to open. 

 Owing to its enormous size, it was with considerable diffi- 

 culty brought to the place where the picture was taken, 

 and a number of flowers were unavoidably sacrificed. The 

 plant was afterward packed and shipped to Europe, and 

 perhaps it still occupies a place in one of the Orchid col- 

 lections on the continent. A still larger plant of this species 

 was imported by Mr. Sander some years ago from South 

 America, where it had been grown in a tree near the dwelling- 

 house of a laborer. This giant Orchid, which was figured in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle for March 8th, was so large that a 

 special house was built for its reception. In its native country 

 the finest and most vigorous plants are found upon rocks, in 

 positions where very little moisture stands about them, and 

 the blossoms are then much brighter in color and of greater 

 substance than when the plants grow upon trees and are 

 partly shaded. There is very little variation found in this 

 species, the rarest form being pure white ; and this form is 

 hardly ever found in a wild state ; the plants that are now 

 under cultivation in our collections are nearly, if not all, ob- 

 tained from the roofs of native huts and from gardens in 

 Costa Rica, where they are grown exclusively for the flowers, 

 used to adorn the churches during the "Semana Santa," or 

 Easter week. Like the majority of Cattleyas, this species 

 delights in an abundance of air while growing, and if placed 

 in baskets so that the compost may be fully exposed to the 

 air and be in no danger of becoming sour or stagnant, it will 

 grow vigorously. This compost should consist of good 

 fibrous peat with a small portion of sphagnum. 

 Summit, n.j. A. Dimmock. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



Berlin Letter. 



A T the last meeting of the Society for the Advancement of 

 **- Horticulture the exhibition of forced Roses attracted 

 much attention. These were grown from cuttings made late 

 in March last year. Plants of La France and Marie Baumann 

 about two feet in height bore from twenty to thirty-six buds 

 and flowers of extraordinary health and vigor and of greater 

 solidity than is usually seen in grafted plants. These cuttings 

 were from forced plants, and, as soon as rooted, they were 

 planted out in the open air in April in a bed thoroughly en- 

 riched with well rotted manure and deeply spaded. During 

 the summer frequent applications of liquid manure were 

 given. In November they were potted and brought into a 

 cold house, where they remained until February, when the 

 forcing began. It is well to note that no pruning was done ; 

 not a twig that was grown during the summer had been re- 

 moved. The bushes had a diameter of from two to two and 

 a half feet, and the leaves and flowers were of the best quality. 



Another feature of interest in this exhibition were the hy- 

 brids of Saxifraga Stracheyi and its allies, with pure white, 

 rose colored and red flowers, those of one plant closely resem- 

 bling Peach-blossoms, not only in size but in form and color. 

 The plants had been placed in a rather dark position, in order 

 to elongate the peduncles, which are normally short. 



On page 90 of this volume of Garden and Forest I stated 

 that plants of Chamcerops excelsa were to be left out all winter 

 in order to test their hardiness, and the result has been that 

 they have passed through in good health. Perhaps, therefore, 

 these Palms deserve the distinction of having survived a Euro- 

 pean winter in the open air in a higher latitude than any others. 

 It is true that the last winter was mild, the lowest temperature 

 being eight degrees Fahrenheit, and yet the fact is of the high- 

 est interest and invites farther experiment. To make such 



