172 



THE POTATO TBECENTI5NABY. 



Bast and in the West — in China, Japan, Australia, tli 

 Pacific Islands, America, and the West Indies. They are 

 cultivated in the southern countries of Europe, but they will 

 scarcely grow in our climate. They were formerly imported 

 from Spain, and are still occasionally scon in the shops. The 

 name " batatas " is said (I know not on what authority) to 

 be Malayan. If that bo so, it may be taken as proving that 

 they came originally from the Bast. The Spaniards may 

 have obtained them either from the East or from the West, 

 and their introduction into Europe may have been one of 

 the early fruits of the Spanish voyages and conqnosts in the 

 sixteenth century. Obviously our word " potato " is nothing 

 but " batatas " modified. When the Solanum tuber was in- 

 troduced, hearing as it did some resemblance to the potato 

 then in use, and being cooked and eaten in the same way, 

 it came to be called by the same name, with the word 

 "Virginia" or "Virginian" added by way of distinction. 

 Gerard, in his " Herbal " (1597), makes this very clear. 

 He devotes a separate chapter to each plant, and each 

 is illustrated with a woodcut. The chapter on the old- 

 fashioned potato is entitled " Of Potatoes," and the draw- 

 ing is headed — 



" Sisarum Feruvianum, sive Baiata Ilispanorum. 

 " Potatus or Potatoes." 



I extract the following from his description of the 

 plant : — 



" This plant which is called of some Hisarum Pe.nwianum, or Skyrrita 

 of Peru, ia generally of us called Potatua or Potatoes. It hath long 

 rough flexible branches trailing upon the ground, like unto Pompions ; 

 whereupon are sot rough hairio leaves, very like unto those of the wilde 

 Cucumber. There is not any that hath written of this plant, or aaide 

 any thing of the flowers, therefore I refer the description thereof unto 



