414 On the Potato. [Sess. 



similar account of his experiments, and the failure he believed 

 was owing to the peculiar situation of our island. He had 

 not known during his fifty years of experience a single plant 

 introduced which had taken up any marked position of 

 economic value. We have an altogether introduced plant in 

 our subject — the potato, which ranks next to the cereals in 

 importance as a food plant to us. The history of the potato 

 {Solanum tuberosum) is a modern one. In a ' Mora Medica ' 

 before me I find no mention of it, although four species of 

 the same genus are mentioned as having a medicinal history. 

 I recollect meeting the late Mr Barclay of Glenbuchat with 

 a specimen or two of Black Nightshade, whose berries his 

 grouse were eating on the moors, showing that stray plants of 

 this order may be found in remote parts, struggling away for 

 years but not acclimatising as wild plants. We have Bitter- 

 sweet, Deadly Nightshade, Henbane, and Thorn Apple, all 

 having poisonous properties and an interesting medicinal 

 history. The Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna) takes 

 its general name from Atropos, one of the Fates whose office 

 it was to cut the thread of human life ; while its specific name, 

 belladonna, means beautiful lady, from the use made of it by 

 ladies as a cosmetic ; while other names denote madness and 

 delirium caused by the plant. It is believed to be the plant 

 which the Roman soldiers ate and destroyed themselves with 

 when flying from the Parthians ; and it was to it that Banquo 

 referred when he said to Macbeth, " Or have we eaten of the 

 insane root, that takes the reason prisoner." 



In the case of the potato, we have to picture a British 

 population living without it down to comparatively recent 

 times. About 1500, a plant called the Sweet Potato of Spain 

 was common in European gardens. It was a Bindweed (Con- 

 volvulus Batatas), introduced from the West Indies. It was 

 said to have also come from the East, as it grows both in 

 India and in China. In most tropical parts this genus is 

 found in some form of utility or another. Gerard, the English 

 herbalist, gives us a quaint account of the growing of this 

 plant, which he calls Sisarum Peruvianum, or Skirret of Peru, 

 generally called in this country potatoes, and he gives some 

 account of how it was then cooked. We come now to the 



