4. Early History of the Potatoe. 
plant called Openawh: “These roots,” says he, “ are round, 
some as large as a walnut, others much larger; they grow in 
damp soil, many hanging together, as if fixed on ropes; they 
are good food, either boiled or roasted.” 
Gerard, in his Herbal, published 1597, gives a figure of 
the potatoe, under the name of Potatoe of Virginia, otherwise 
called Norembaga. 
The manuscript minutes of the Royal Society, December 
13, 1693, tell us, that Sir Robert Southwell, then President, 
informed the fellows, at a meeting, that his grandfather 
brought potatoes into Ireland, who first had them from Sir 
Walter Raleigh. 
This evidence proves, not unsatisfactorily, that the potatoe 
was first brought into England, either in the year 1586, or 
very soon after, and sent from thence to Ireland, without de- 
lay, by Sir Robert Southwell’s ancestor, where it was cher- 
ished and cultivated for food before the good people of Eng- 
land knew its value; for Gerard, who had this plant in his 
garden, in 1597, recommends the root to be eaten as a deli- 
cate dish, — not as common food. 
It appears, however, that it first came into Europe at an 
earlier period, and by a different channel; for Clusius, who 
at that time resided at Vienna, first received the potatoe in 
1598, who had procured it the year before from one of the 
attendants of the Pope’s legate, under the name of Taratoufli; 
and learned from him, that in Italy, where it was then in 
use, no one certainly knew whether it originally came from 
Spain or from America. 
Peter Cieca, in his Chronicle, printed in 1553, tells us, 
chap. xi., p. 49, that the inhabitants of Quito and its vicini- 
ty, have, besides Maize, a tuberous root, which they eat, and 
call papas ; this, Clusius guesses to be the plant he received 
from Flanders, and this conjecture has been confirmed by the 
