SOLANUM. 



lafger ; they grow in damp foil, many hanging together, as 

 if fixed on ropes : they are good food either boiled or 

 roafted." 



Gerarde in his Herbal, pubhflied in the year 1597, gives 

 a figure of the potatoe, under the name of the potatoe of 

 Virginia, and aflerts, that he received the roots from Vir- 

 ginia, which are otherwife denominated Norembega. 



The manufcript minutes of the Royal Society, 13th of 

 December, 1693, afTure us, that fir Robert Southwell, 

 then prefident, informed the fellows, at a meeting, that his 

 grandfather brought potatoes into Ireland, who firft had 

 them of fir Waiter Raleigh. 



This evidence, it is fuppofed by fir Jofeph, proves, in no 

 fatisfaftory manner, that the potatoe was firft brought into 

 England, either in the year Ij86, or very foon after that 

 period, and fent from thence to Ireland without delay, by 

 fir Robert Southwell's anceftor, where it was cherifhed and 

 cultivated for food before the good people of England 

 knew its value ; for Gerarde, who had this plant in his gar- 

 den in 1597, recommends the roots to be eaten as a delicate 

 diih, not as common food. 



It appears, however, he fays, that it firft came into 

 Europe at an earlier period, and by a different channel ; 

 for Clufius, who at that time refided at Vienna, firft re- 

 ceived the potatoe, in 1598, from the governor of Mons, 

 in Hainault, who had procured it the year before from 

 one of the attendants of the pope's legate, under the name 

 of Taratonfli ; and learned from him, that in Italy, where 

 it was then in ufe, no one certainly knew whether it ori- 

 ginally came from Spain, or from America. 



Peter Cicca, in his Chronicle, which was printed in 1553, 

 tells us, it is faid, in chap. xl. p. 49, that the inhabitants 

 of Quito, and its vicinity, have, befides mays, a tuberous 

 root, which they eat, and call papas ; this Clufius gueffes 

 to be the fame fort of plant he received from Flanders, and 

 this conjefture has, it is faid, been confirmed by the ac- 

 counts of travellers, who have fince that period vifited the 

 country. 



It is concluded that, from thefe details, it may fairly be 

 inferred, that potatoes were brought into Europe from the 

 mountainous parts of South America, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Quito ; and that, ae the Spaniards were the fole 

 pofled'ors of that country, there can be little doubt of their 

 having been carried firft into Spain, but that as it would take 

 fome time to introduce them into ufe in that country, and 

 afterwards to make the ItaHans fo well acquainted with 

 them as to give them a name, there is every reafon to be- 

 lieve, that they had been feveral years in Europe before 

 they were fent to Clufius. 



As the name of the root in South America is papas, and 

 in Virginia that of opanawk ; the name of potatoe was, it 

 is faid, evidently applied to it on account of its fimilarity 

 in appearance to the battata, or fweet potatoe ; and our 

 potatoe appears to have been diftinguifhed from that root, 

 by the appellation of potatoe of Virginia, until the year 

 1640, if not longer. 



It is added, that feme authors have afierted, that pota- 

 toes were firft difcovered by fir Francis Drake in the 

 South feas, and others, that they were introduced into 

 England by fir John Hawkins ; but in both inftances, the 

 plant alluded to is, it is faid, clearly the fweet potatoe, 

 ivhich was ufed in England, as a delicacy, long before the 

 introduction of our potatoes ; it was imported, it is faid, 

 in confiderable quantities, from Spain and the Canaries, and 

 was fuppofed to poficfs the power of reftoring decayed 

 vigour. The killing comfits of Falflaff, and other con- 

 feftions of fimilar imaginary qualities, with which our an- 



VoL. XXXIII. 



ceftors were duped, were, it is faid, principally compofed 

 of thefe, and eringo roots. 



It is alfo further noticed, that the potatoes themfelves 

 were fold by itinerant dealers, chiefly in the neighbourhood 

 of the Royal Exchange, and purchafed, at no inconfider- 

 able coft, by thofe who had faith in their alleged proper- 

 ties. The allufions to this opinion are, it is obferved, very 

 frequent in the plays of that age. 



Method of Culture. — Thefe plants, from the great differ- 

 ences in their natures, habits of growth, and other quali- 

 ties, muft evidently require different modes of cultivation 

 and management. 



Culture in the Annual Kind. — The three firft fpecies, 

 which are of this fort, may be raifed from feed, which 

 fhould be fown in the early fpring on hot-beds, moulded 

 over to the depth of fix or feven inches with light rich 

 mould, in drills or pots plunged into the beds. When the 

 plants come up, they fhould be properly thinned, have a 

 pretty free admiflion of air, and occafional waterings ; and 

 the love-apple kinds, when they have attained fome growth, 

 as five or fix inches, and the weather becomes fettled warm, 

 fhould be removed into the open ground, planting them in 

 a warm flieltered border, and placing them at a confiderable 

 diftance. Some may be trained againft a foulh fence, to have 

 the advantage of the full fun : they fhould always be fup- 

 ported by fome means or other to (hew themfelves, and 

 ripen their fruit. But the egg-plants Ihould be pricked 

 out, when a few inches in height, into another hot-bed pre- 

 pared for the purpofe, at the diftance of four or five inches ; 

 and fome may be put in feparate pots, and plunged in the 

 bed, giving water and ftiade till they are frefh rooted ; the 

 waterings fhould be duly repeated, and frefh air freely ad- 

 mitted, when the weather is fine : it may alfo be requifite 

 to remove them with balls about their roots to a third 

 hot-bed, in order to have them very fine and ftrong : the 

 frame fhould be raifed as they advance in growth, and when 

 the weather becomes fine and Iiot, they (hould be gradually 

 hardened, and finally fet out in the pots, &c. where they 

 are wanted. 



Culture in the Hardy Shrubby Kind. — The fourth fort, 

 which is of this nature, may be increafcd by layers and 

 cuttings, which may be laid down or planted out in the 

 autumn or fpring, where they will be well rooted by the 

 following autumn, when they may be taken off and re- 

 moved into nurfery.rows, or where they are to grow for 

 good. 



Culture in the Shrubby Greenhou/e Kind. — Likcwife all 

 the eight following forts, which are of this defcription, may 

 be increafed by feeds, wiiich (hould be fown thinly in rich 

 light earth in the early fpring in fmall pots, plunging them 

 in the hotbed under frames and glailes, watering them 

 frequently, when the plants will foon come up, admitting 

 frefh air daily ; and when the plants arc about two inches 

 high, they (hould be pricked out upon another hot-bed, 

 giving water and fliade, till they are frefh rooted ; and fome 

 may be put into pots, plunging them in the bed. As the 

 warm weather advances, they fliould be gradually hardened 

 to the open air, fo as to be let out into it about the middle 

 of the fummer, when the weather is mild and fine. 



And they (hould afterwards be managed as other (hrubby 

 exotic grecnhoufe plants. 



There are alfo many of the tender (lirubby hot-houfe or 

 ftove kinds, that are highly deferving of cultivation, lucli 

 as the fiery-thorned American, Guinea, tomcntofe trilo- 

 bate, and feveral other fpecies. 



Thefe may all be increafed by fowing the feeds of them, 



in the fpring, in pots of light eartli, to be plunged into n 



P p hot-bsd; 



