2 INTRODUCTION OF THE POTATO. 



Some of Sir Walter's ships sailed in the same year ; others, 

 on board one of which was Thomas Herriot, afterward 

 known as a mathematician, in 15«5 ; the whole however re- 

 turned, and probably brought with them the potato, on the 

 27th July, 1586. 



This Mr. Thomas Herriot, who was probably sent out to 



examine the country, and report to his employers the nature 



First acrount and produce of its soil, wrote an account of it, which is 



Herrfot! ^ printed in De Bry's collection of Voyages, Vol.1. In this 



account, under the article of roots, p. 17, he describes a 



plant called openawk : " These roots," says he, •* are round, 



som^ as large as a walnut, others much larger: they grow 



in damp soil, many hanging together, as if fixed on ropes ; 



they are good food, either boiled or roasted." 



Gerard receiv- Gerard, in his Herbal, published 15i)7» gives a figure of 



from Virginia. *^^ potato, under the name of potato of Virginia; and tells 



us that he received the roots from Virginia, otherwise called 



Norembega. 



First intrcduc- The manuscript minutes of the Royal Society, December 



llnd'"^°^'^' ^^' ^^^^' *^^^ "^' *^^* ^^^ Robert Southwell, then presi- 

 dent,informed the fellows, at a meeting, that his grandfather 

 brought potatoes into Ireland, who first had them from Sir 

 Walter Raleigh. 



This evidence proves, not unsatisfactorilj', that the potato 



was first brought into England, either in the year 1586, 



or very soon after, and sent thence to Ireland, without 



Considered as delay, by Sir Robert Southwell's ancestor, where it was 



a delicacy in cherished and cultivated for food before the good people of 



1597. England knew its value; for Gerard, who had this plant in 



his garden in 1597, recommends the roots to be eaten as a 



delicate dish, not as common food. 



Conreyed ear- It appears, however, that it first came into Europe, at an 



her from Ame- earlier period, and by a different channel ; for Clusius, who 



and thence' to at that time resided at Vienna, first received the potato in 



*^'y- 1598, from the governor of Mons, in Hainault, who had 



procured it the year before from one of the attendants of the 



pope's legate, under the name of taratoufli ; and learned 



from him, that in Italy, where it was then in use, no one 



certainly knew whether it originally came from Spain, or 



from America. 



Peter 



