122 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



of Spaine, Canada, Ginney and Virginia, etc." The Virginian 

 " Battatas Virginiaca " are the true potatoes ; the others (about 

 which there seemed to be some uncertainty, on account of the 

 various-sized tubers brought by Portuguese ships) are clearly 

 sweet potatoes, or yams ; while the remaining variety, it is rather 

 startling to find, were " Battatas of Canada, the French Bat- 

 tatas or Hierusalem Artichokes. " We in England, frome 

 some ignorant and idle heads, have called them Artichokes of 

 Jerusalem, only because the root being boiled is in taste like 

 the bottom of an Artichoke head." " This plant has no simili- 

 tude . . . with an Artichoke . . . neither came it from Jerusalem 

 or out of Asia, but out of America." 1 None of these authors 

 make any attempt to account for Helianthus tuberosus being 

 called " Jerusalem," but it can be explained, as the plant 

 is a kind of sunflower or " Girosole," of which latter word 

 " Jerusalem " is a corruption. Goodyer gives the history of its 

 first introduction : 2 " In anno 1617 I received two small roots 

 thereof from Master Franqueuill of London . . . the one I 

 planted, the other I gave to a friend ; mine brought mee a pecke 

 of roots, wherewith I stored Hampshire." Of the use of these 

 Parkinson writes : " The Potatos of Canada are by reason of 

 their great increasing, grown to be so common with us here at 

 London, that even the most vulgar begin to despise them, 

 whereas when they were first received among us they were 

 dainties for a Queen, but the too-frequent use, especially being 

 so plentiful and cheap, hath rather bred a loathing than a liking 

 of them." Goodyer also classes them as " meat more fit for 

 swine than men." 



Y The Skirret (Suim sisarum) ranked among favourite vege- 

 tables. It was, as Parkinson says, " everywhere sowen or 

 planted in gardens, and with us rather soun than planted, for 

 soune among Onions the one will not hinder the growth of the 

 other." 3 " The roote is composed of divers small long round 

 white roots set together at one head . . . with a small pith 

 within them, and very pleasant to be eaten." " Being dressed 

 according to every one's liking doe nourish well," and it " is 

 more delicate " than a parsnip. He identifies the Skirrit with 



1 Johnson's edition of Gerard's Herbal, 1633. 2 Ibid. 



3 Theatrum Botanicum, 1640. 



