HISTORY, CULTURE, AND DISEASES OF THE 
POTATOE. 
PART I. 
CHAPTER I. 
Some Account of the Harly History of the Potatoe; tts In- 
troduction into Great Britain and other Hur opean Coun- 
irves. 
Tar Potatoe now in use, (Solanum tuberosum,) was 
brought to England by the Colonists sent out by Sir Walter 
Raleigh, under the authority of his patent, granted by Queen 
Elizabeth, “for discovering and planting new countries, not 
possessed by Christians,” which passed the great seal in 
1584. Some of Sir Walter’s ships sailed in the same year; 
others, on board one of which was Thomas Herriot, after- 
wards known as a mathematician, in 1585; the whole, how- 
ever, returned, and probably brought with them the Potatoe, 
on the 27th of July, 1586. 
This Mr. Thomas Herriot, who was probably sent out to 
examine the country, and report to his employers the nature 
and produce of the soil, wrote an account of it, which is 
printed in De Bry’s Collection of Voyages, vol. IJ. In this 
account, under the article of roots, page 17, he describes a 
