ATIVE COUNTRY OF THE POTATO, 



297 



ley, a respectable writer, who published an interesting little / 



work on the history of Virginia early in the sixth century. ' 



Mr. Beverley could not find the solanum tuberosum in Mr. Beverley, 

 Virginia, He says, indeed, that the njitive Indiajis *♦ had 

 originally amongst them Indian corn, pease, beans, pota- 

 toes, and tobacco," But he. afterward gives a more particu- His accouiUof 

 lar account of their potatoes. " Their potatoes (he says) ^'^^^ ''"^"^'* 

 are either red or white, about a* long as a boy's leg, and 

 sometimes as long and big as both the leg and thi'>h of a 

 young child, and very much resembling it in shape.- 1 take 

 these kinds to be the same with those, which are represented 

 in the herbals to be Spanish potatoes. I am sure those 

 called English or Irish potatoes are nothing like these, either 

 in shape, colour, or taste*". 



This is, certainly, an important passage. It almost proves, This ava- 

 what 1 hope to reudec quite certain in the sequel, that the "^^y «^'i'« 

 ludjans ot Virginia were entirely unacquainted with the so- batatas. 

 Janum tuberosum, when these people were first visited by 

 the Europeans. The long potatoes, which Mr. Beverley 

 mentions, are, certainly, varieties of the cpnvolvxilus batatas, 

 well known in the United States by the name of <' sweet 

 potato." Bat it is a fact, that beside this valuable plant, 

 which the Indians of Virginia, &c., have, for a loug time, 

 cultivated, these people ate, though I think they did not 

 cultivate, another species of the same genus, the convolvulus 

 pandutatus, which is still known in some parts of the United 

 States, by the nqme of" Indian potato." 



Descending farther south into Carolina, we cannot disco- The potato not 



ver, that the Indians of that great tract of country oossessed ^"'^''^" ^" ^^- 



, . 1 /. • , , rolii;a til! iii- 



gs a native, or cultivated as a toreigu, plant, the solanum tioduced by 



tuberosum, before their intercourse with the Europeans. Europeans. 



Mr. Lawson,. who resided in Carolina, in the very firs^ L:wsoi>. 



years of the 18th century, mentions potatoes as some of the 



«• gardeii roots," that thrive well in Carolina,f. He does 



♦ T!ie hntory of "Virginia, in four parts. By h native and inhabitant 

 of ^he place. Pjges 125, 127. London : 1722. The second edition. 



•f- The garden roots, that thrive well in Carolina, are carrots, leeks, 

 parsneps, turneps, potatoes of several delicate soris, ground artichokes," 

 (ftc, A new voyage to Caiohna, &c., p. 77. Loudon: 1709. 4to. 



not 



