10 On the Introduction of the Potatoe, §c. 



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. xl. page 49, that the inhabitants of Quito, and its vi- 

 cinity, have, besides Mays, 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 con- 

 firmed by the accounts of travellers, who have visited the 

 country since that period. 



From these details we may fairly infer, that Potatoes were 

 first brought into Europe from the mountainous parts of 

 South America, in the neighbourhood of Quito ; and, as the 

 Spaniards were the sole possessors of that country, there is 

 little doubt of their having "been first carried into Spain ; but 

 as it would take some time to introduce them into use in 

 that country, and afterwards to make the Italians so well 

 acquainted with them as to give them a name,* there is 

 every reason to believe they had been several years in Europe, 

 before they were sent to Clusius. 



The name of the root, in South America, is Papas, and in 

 Virginia, it was called Openawk ; the name of Potatoe was 

 therefore evidently applied to it on account of its similarity 

 in appearance to the Battatas, or Sweet Potatoe; and our 

 Potatoe appears to have been distinguished from that root, 

 by the appellative of Potatoe of Virginia, till the year 1640, 

 if not longer.-f 



Some authors have asserted, that Potatoes were first dis- 



* Taratoufli signifies also truffles. 



t Gerard's Herbal, by Johnson, page 927. 



