•38 
MEMOIR OF 
late as 1707, be it observed) may be adduced in 
confirmation of this fact. In speaking of the 
great variety of food mankind is sustained by, he 
says,* “ Many live on the Irish patatas, a sort of 
Solatium, on which, I have heard, they live in the 
mines of Potosi, and in Ireland and in his 
Account of Jamaica Plants, f he describes the 
potato in the following terms : “ The root is 
tuberous ; for shape and bigness very uncertain ; 
but being for the most part oblong, as big as a 
hen’s egg; from a swelled middle tapering to both 
extremes ; yellow and sweet within ; when roasted, 
tasting like a boiled chestnut, and having many 
fibrils by which it draws its nourishment. The 
stalks are green, a little covered, and creeping for 
many feet in length along the surface of the 
earth, and putting forth leaves and flowers at 
every inch’s distance,” &c. “ In four months 
after planting, they are ready to be gathered, the 
ground being filled with them, and if they con- 
tinue therein any longer, they are eaten by 
worms.” 
who had resided all her life near the road from London to 
Epsom, states, that “ in her youth she used tp look for- 
ward with much pleasure to the quarter days, when the 
tenants dined at her father’s house, because on these days 
only was she treated with a dish of potatoes.” 
* Introduction to Natural History of Jamaica, vol. i. 
p. 21. 
t Natural History of Jamaica, vol. i. p. 150. 
