290 NATIVE COUNTRY OF THE POTATO. 



shire, exists also in that from Cork: for glass is cori^odedl 

 by heating upon it, in a drop of sulphuric acid, a fragment 

 of the mineral from either of those places. 



On the Native Country of the Solamim tuberosum^ or Potate. 

 By Benjamin Smith Barton, M. D., Mem. of the 

 Am. Phil, Soc. Sfc. Communicated by Jo«N Mason 

 Good, Esq.^ F.R.S, Mem. of the Am. Phil. Soc. and 

 F. L. S. of Philadelphia. 



On the native ^^ ^^^ Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London i 

 country of the there is a paper, by sir Joseph Banks, on the native country 

 ^ ' of the solanum tuberosum, or potato*. I have read this 



paper, with much satisfaction : but as ray opinions on some 

 of the points relative to this question are essentially different 

 from those of the learned and excellent baronet, I have 

 drawn up, without much regard to order, the following me- 

 moir, which I beg leave to communicate to the public, 

 through my candid and learned friend, Mr. John Mason 

 Good. 

 the potato ^''' Joseph Banks thinks it very certain, that the potato, 



supposed to though not exclusively a native of Virginia, was actually 

 troduced from imported from that part of the American continent into Eu- 

 Virgiaia : rope : and that the seed potato of the English was introduced 



exclusively perhaps into Britain and Ireland from Virginia, 

 but U is not a . It 's "fiy decided opinion, that the potato is not a native 



native of North of Virginia, or of any other part of the North American 

 America, . , . , . i • . 



continent^* that it was not even known, m a cultivated state, 



in any of these more northern latitudes of America: and by 



consequence, that it was not imported into Europe from 



these regions of the new world. 



* An Attempt to ascertain the Timeivhen the Potato (Solanum tu- 

 be r.)s\im) was first introduced into the United Kingdom, &c,, by the Rt. 

 Hon. sir Joseph Banks, hart. K. B., P. R. S. &c. Transactions of 

 flu Horticultural Society of London, vol. 1, parti, art. ii, London: 



imj. [Sec Journal, vol. XX, p» 1.3 



1 «hall 



