199 
ON ESCULENT ROOTS 
The Sweet Potato, (fig. 1,) was introduced into England, by Sir Francis Drake 
and Sir John Hawkins, in the middle of the fifteenth century. Attempts were made 
to naturalise it in this country, but it was found too tender to thrive in the open 
air through an English winter. Gerarde cultivated it in his garden in 1597, where 
it flourished during the warm season ; but as soon as it was assailed by the cold 
weather it drooped, and perished in the ground. The roots were, at that time, 
imported into England in considerable quantities from Spain and the Canaries, and 
were prized as a confection rather than as a nourishing vegetable. A more abundant 
supply of fruit of home growth has caused the hatata gradually to decline in favour, 
and for many years it has ceased to be an article of importation into this country. 
This plant is an herbaceous 
perennial, which sends out many 
trailing stalks, extending six or 
eight feet every way ; these are 
round and of a pale green colour ; 
at each joint roots are put forth, 
which, in a genial climate, grow to 
be very large tubers, so that from 
a single plant forty or fifty large 
roots are produced. The leaves 
are angular, and stand on long 
petioles. The flowers are purple. 
Several varieties of this plant are 
to be found in the different coun- 
tries where it is cultivated, and 
which difi"er from each other in 
size, shape, and the flavour of the 
roots. The hatata is propagated 
by laying down the young shoots 
in the spring; indeed, in its native Sweet Potato. — Convolvulus batata. 
climate, it multiphes itself almost spontaneously ; for, if the branches of roots that 
have been pulled up are suflfered to remain on the ground, and a shower of rain falls 
soon after they have been broken off, their vegetation will recommence. The roots 
are sweet, nourishing, and though rather insipid, of no unpleasant flavour. In 
warm climates the hatata is of very abundant growth and easy of propagation ; and, 
therefore, it is matter of surprise that, in Brazil, the mandioc should be cultivated 
in preference as food for the negroes, the hatata being raised more as a luxury for 
the planter's table. In the national garden at Paris, this plant is raised in a hotbed, 
whence it is transplanted at the latter end of the spring into the open ground, and 
* Extracted from the voliiine of the " Library of Entertaining Knowledge," devoted to vegetable 
substances used for the food of man. 
