THE POTATO TEECENTBNABX. 



175 



tended that ho was led to call them potatoes from their 

 resemblance only to the root with which he was familiar 

 under that name, and that his concluding remark about 

 them is inconsistent with the supposition of their identity. 

 Be that as it may, evidence is wanting of Hawkins having 

 introduced the plant into England; while the terms in 

 which Gerard, nearly thirty years later, writes of the Vir- 

 ginian potato as a new discovery, forbid us to believe that 

 the plant had been long in cultivation in this country. 



It was Bauhin, a Swiss botanist, who (about 1G20) first 

 referred the Virginian plant to the genus Snlanum, calling it 

 Solanum tuheromm esculentum — names (except esculcntum) 

 adopted by Linna3U8 and still retained. 



Many years elapsed before the new potato so far sup- 

 planted the old as to be able to dispense with its distinctive 

 epithet. So late as 1686— just a century after its introduc- 

 tion—Ray, in his "History of Plants," give as the English 

 name "Virginia Potatoes," while ho calls the other sort 

 " Spanish Potatoes." It would seem as if at that time the 

 two kinds had reached an equality of popularity, and the term, 

 "potato," by itself, had become ambiguous. But there can 

 be little doubt that for many years after the introduction of 

 the Virgini,-m root, the word "potato," used alone, retained 

 its old moaning. It occurs twice in Shakespeare, in plays 

 written respectively in 1G02 and 1609, and in both instances 

 there is a probability, from internal evidence, that the 

 batatas tuber is meant.* Bacon, in his essay " On Life 

 and Death " (about 1625), writes .— " If ale should bo made 



* The Gvidonoo is hardly conclusive. With regard to one of the 

 passages (Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V., Sc. .-5), it may be objected 

 that the provocative quality fancifully ascribed to the batatas was 

 quieldy transferred, by the lively imagination of our forefathers to 

 the new root, as appears clearly from Gerard's description, as well as 



