NATIVE CO0NTRY OF THE POTATO. ^q\ 



Sir Joseph Banks is not the only late writer, whose cofrect sir J. Banks 

 acquaintance with subjects of natural history entitle their opi- "^' singubr in 

 nionsand conjectures to attention, that has assumed it as a the^nativeT^ 

 fact, that the solanum tuberosum was originally found in country of the 

 Virginia; > ^ I^"^^^'^' 



The learned Mr. Willdenow, a botanist of the first or- WilWenow, 

 der, says — " After America wag discovered, many plants 

 were imported, and grew in our climate. The potato was 

 first described by Caspar Bauhin in 1590 ; and sir Walter 

 Raleigh, in the year l623, distributed the first which he 

 brought from Virginia, in Ireland, whence all Europe got 

 them*". 



This passage contains some errours, which it may not be iVfUtakes ia 

 amiss to correct. t^"^ pissag«, 



•I. Sir Walter never was in Virginia, though several au- respecting sji 

 ■"thors, beside Mr. Willdenow, seem to suppose, that the j^^''^^ ^"^^ 

 iUnstrious Englishman visited, in person, this portion of 

 America. 



II. In 1623 Raleigh was not living. Five years before 

 this period (in October I6I8), he lost his head upon the 

 scaffold, to the eternal disgrace, if not of his nation, at least 

 of the feeble monarch, who then presided over it. 



III. There is, I think, no proof whatever, that Ireland 

 ■was so exclusively the first European depot of the potato, 

 as Mr. Willdenow supposes it to have been. 



Mr. Loskiel remarks, *' Potatoes are originally a North Lojkiel. 

 American root, and are said to have been first brought to 

 Europe by sir Walter Raleigh. They are cultivated by 

 some of the Indians f". 



On the subject of the potato, Baron de Humboldt has Von Hutu- 

 said a great deal ; and it is evident, that he considers the *'*^''^*- 

 history of this root as intimately connected with the history 

 of the Americans. 



" The potato," observes my ingenious friend (with whom The poiat<j 

 I have passed many hour^j in useful conversation), " pre- 



* The Principles of Botany, and of Vegetable Philosophy, British 

 translation, p. 390, Edinburgh, ia05. 



t History of the Mission of tde United Brethrea among the Indians 

 in North America. By George Heniy Losltlel. Part I, p, 63. Lon- 

 alon, 1794. 



sents 



