NATIVE COUNTRY OF THE POTATO. 299 



ed, all tending to establish my position, that the solan u m might bead- 



tuberosum was not found, either in a wild or in a cultivated^^'^'^' 



statey \n Virginia, or in any of the adjacent countries of 



North America, by the first discoverers and colonists of 



these portions of the new world. But it is time, perhaps, to 



try the question, which we are examining, by another set 



of arguments, 



I have already said, that Captain John Smith does not Smith's testU 

 mention the potato among the *' indigenous" plants of Vir-™**"^* 

 ginia, Bu* this gentleman is not wholly silent on the sub- 

 ject of our plant. On the contrary, his Historie contains a 

 me/norab!e passage, which seems to have escaped the notice 

 of sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Willdenow, baron 

 Humboldt, and all the other writers, who have contended, 

 that the valnable esculent plant, of which we are speaking, 

 ■yvas originally found in Virginia : a passage from which it is 

 safe to infer, at least, thus much, that the potato was not 

 known by the earlier colonists of Virginia to inhabit that 

 country, either in a wild or in a cultivated state. 



Under the head, or date, of I6l3, Captain Smith says. His account of 

 that by the return of the ship Elizabeth to Virginia, from tioVo/the"^' 

 England, potatoes were brought into the country. ** In potato into 

 this ship were brought the first potato roots, which flourished "^S'">*» 

 exceedingly for a time, till by negligence they were almost 

 lost (all but two cast-away roots) that so wonderfully have 

 increased, they are a maine releefe to all the inhabitants." 

 On the margin of the page, we read " A strange increase of 

 potatoes*.'* 



This 



* The Geoerall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Sum^ 

 mer Isles: with the names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Govei- 

 nours, from their first beginning An : 1534, to this present 1624, &c. 

 By Captaine John Smith, sometyraes Governour in those Countryes, 

 and Admh-all of New England. Page 179. London: 1624— It may 

 not be amiss to take notice, in tbit> place, of some of the roots which 

 Captain Smith mentions as indigenous in A^irginia. " The chiefe root Roots men- 

 they (the Indians) have for food is called tockawhoughe. It growetb tioned by 

 like a flagge in maarishes. In one day a salvage will gather sufficient "^^ ^ ^^ '" ^" 

 for a weeke. These, roots ai;erauch of thegreatnesse and taste ofpoia- Virginia, 

 tpea. They vs« t« cgver a great many of them with oke leaues and 



ferqe. 



