29^ ' NATIVE CODNTRT OF THE POTATO. 



nice and philosophic attention, the manners, the customs, 



&c., and ta have paid particular attention to the dietetic 



articles of the Indians, Had he found the solanum tubero* 



suni in Virginia, either as cultivated by these rnde people, 



or as growing wild in their woods, &c., he would not have 



neglected to give us some information on the subject. 



The potato not Nor Is the potato mentioned as one of the indigenous 



Splint's ^^ plants of Virginia by the famous Captain John Smith, who 



ViririiiU by CMn::;e into that country in the Very first years of the 17th 



century, and who resided there a long lime: certainly long 



enough to have made himself acquainted with a vegetable of 



such primary importance to the colony, if it had really exrr 



isted there ; and especially if it had been cultivated by the 



Indians. It is true, that Smith does make some mentioq 



of the potato : and I shall afterward avail piyself of what he 



has said on the subject, as one of the most powerful artrur 



ments in support of my opinion, that the potato was entirely 



■' nnknowu in Virginia, >Yhen the first English colonists took 



possession of the country. 



The potato not lu truth, I do not find, that thi's vegetable is mentioned as 



T-i'-'rr of'vir- " ^^^^^^ of Virginia, or as cultivated in this part of the con- 



f-' :■. ly uy tinent when it was first discovered, by any writer who had 



g o( lu lority e^joyetj goo(j opportunity of obtaining precise information 



but Mr. Jef- on the subject, except by Mr. Jeffierson, the learned presi? 



'' ' dent of the American Philosophical Society. 



' This genicieman mentions the potato among the vegetables 



which were found in Virginia when fi'st visited by the Eng*- 



lish ; but (he adds) " it is not said whether of spontaneous 



and supposed growth, or by cultivation only. Most probably they were 



by him ID liave "^ , . ^ ' ^i v j. i i i . . 



come from the ""^•'^^s"*'f niore southern climates, and handed along the 

 south. contint^nt from one nation to another of savages*. 



His authority I know not from what somee of authority Mr. Jefferson 

 foritsbeirg obtained the fact, that the potato was found in Viro-Jnia 



Kno'.vn early . i -r-< i- i -. • " ' o ^ » 



ther^Miot men- when first visited by the English. It is not altogether un- 



tioiied., likely, that my illustrious friend was misled by the same 



passage in Herriot, which misled sir Joseph Banks: by the 



short and imperfect description of the unknown openawk. 



Mr. Jefferson did not obtain his information from Mr. iJever- 



* Notes on the State of Virginia. Original edition, pnge 63. 



