388 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Such an expression of confidence was naturally very mucli 
appreciated by me, althougii in some respects it rendered my 
position more difficult. In itself the subject of Potatos may 
not be particularly attractive even to the majority of horticulturists, 
and it is so comprehensive that one scarcely knows where to 
commence. Perhaps the task might have seemed easier had one 
specific aspect of this wide question been chosen ; but then I 
should probably have realised that I could only follow others, far 
more competent than myself, who had already placed the results 
of extensive research before the horticultural world. Possibly 
the knowledge that every point had been so fully dealt with 
induced Mr. Wilks to leave the speaker a free choice in attempting 
to find new features of interest. However this may be, I con- 
sented to do the best I could under the circumstances. 
Introduction of the Potato. 
Concerning the introduction of the Potato into England, the 
following extract from " Loudon's Encyclopaedia," published in 
183G, is of sufficient importance to find a place in any paper on 
Potatos : — 
" It appears probable that the potatoe was first brought 
into Europe from the mountainous parts of South America 
in the neighbourhood of Quito, where they Avere called 
papas, to Spain, early in the sixteenth century. From 
Spain, where they were called battatas, they found their 
way to Italy, and there received the same name as the 
truffle, taratoiifli. From Italy they went to Vienna, 
through the Governor of Mons in Hainhault, who sent 
some to Clusius in 1598. To England the Potato found 
its way from North America, being brought from Vir- 
ginia by the colonists sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh 
in 1584, and who returned in July 158G, and ' probably,' 
says Sir Joseph Banks, ' brought with them the potatoe.' 
Gerardc, in his Herbal, pubHshed in 1597, gives a figure 
of the potatoe under the name of Potatoe of Virginia, 
whence, lie says, he received the roots ; and this appel- 
lation it appears to have retained, in order to distin- 
guish it from the battatas or sweet potatoe (Convolvulus 
battatas), till tlie year KMO, if not longer. . . . Cougli 
says the potatoe was first planted by Sir Walter Raleigh 
