INTRODUCTION OF THE POTATO. 3, 



Peter Cieca, in his Chronicle, printed in 1553, tells us, Mentioned in 

 chap, xl, p. 49, that the inhabitants of Quito, and its vici- ^^^^' 

 nity, have, beside mays, a tuberous root, which they eat, 

 and call papas. This Clusius guesses to be the plant he 

 received from Flanders ; and this conjecture has been con- 

 firmed by the accounts of travellers, who have since that 

 period visited the country. 



From these details we may fairly infer, that potatoes were General infe» 

 first brought into Europe from the mountainous parts of 

 South America, in the neighbourhood of Quito ; and, as 

 the Spaniards were the sole possessors of that country, there 

 is little doubt of their having been first carried into Spain, * 

 but as it would take some time to introduce them into use in 

 that country, and afterward to make the Italians so well ac- 

 quainted with them as to give them a name*, there is every 

 reason to believe they had been several years in Europe, be- 

 fore they were sent to Clusius. 



The name of the root, in South America, is papas, and in Etymologjr ot 

 Virginia, it was called openawk; the name of potato was *^® '^*"*^' 

 therefore evidently apphed to it on account of its similarity 

 in appearance to the battata, or sweet potato ; and our po- 

 tato appears to have been distinguished from that root, by 

 the appellative of potato of Virginia, till the year I64O, if 

 not longer f. 



Some authors have asserted, that potatoes were first dis- The sweet po- 

 covered by Sir Francis Drake, in the South Seas; and others, tato introduced 

 that they were introduced into England, by Sir John Haw- earlier. 

 kins ; but in both instances the plant alluded to is clearly 

 the sweet potato, which was used in England as a delicacy, 

 long before the introduction of our potatoes; it was imported 

 in considerable quantities from Spain, and the Canaries, 

 and was supposed to possess the power of restoring decayed Us reported 

 vigour. The kissing comfits of Falstaif $, and other con- properties, 

 fections of similar imaginary qualities, with which our an- 



* Taratoufli signifies also truffles. 



f Gerard's Herbal, by Johnson, p. 729. 



X " Let it rain potatoes, and hail kissing comfits." Merry Wives of 

 Windsor, Act v. Scene 5, • 



Parkinson's Paradisus Terrestris, p. 518. Gerard'*».Herbal, 1697, p. 

 780. 



B 2 cestors 



