375 
Cochinchina and Japan, about Tripoli in Syria; Africa, and the South of 
Europe. 
It was cultivated in England in 1502, as appears from Turner’s herbal. 
It flowers here in July and August, and should be forced by dung. 
The Ricinus is called the oil-nut in our West Indian Islands, and the oil 
is used in the boiling-houses in lamps by many of the sugar planters. 
Even if not cultivated here for medicinal purposes, it is a very ornamental 
plant, and would embellish the grounds about our habitations. 
Let us proceed from medicinal to edible plants. The Potatoe (Solanum 
Tuberosum) now so generally cultivated in Europe, appeared at the end of 
the sixteenth century as a curiosity in Botanic Gardens. Gerarde in 1 5QJ 
informs us, that he received roots of it from Virginia, which grew and pros¬ 
pered in his garden, as in their native country; he calls it Potatoe of America, 
from the Spanish name Battata. Though it is pretty clear that the Potatoe 
came to us from Virginia, yet it does not follow that it is originally indi¬ 
genous to that country, but that it was probably a native of Peru, as the 
Spanish name indicates. 
Clusius in 1031 gives a drawing of the whole plant in his History of 
Pare Plants , taken from one which he says was in his own possession. 
Caspar Bauhin relates that the Potatoe came first from Virginia to Eng¬ 
land, and thence spread all over Europe. 
In Gough’s Edition of Camden’s Britannia, it is expressly affirmed, that 
Sir Walter Raleigh, who was beheaded in 1018, first introduced this root into 
England from Virginia in 1584, having cultivated them at Youghall in the 
county of Cork. 
From Ireland it quickly passed over to the continent. 
The Cucumber is a native of the South of France. 
The Sugar Maple of America (Acer Saccharinum) might also be na¬ 
turalized to this climate. This tree will grow to the height of forty feet. 
It has some resemblance to that from Norway, when the plants are young; 
but as they grow up, the leaves of this are more deeply divided, and their 
surfaces less smooth, so that the two species are then easily distinguished. 
This is very distinct from the scarlet-flowering Maple, in having the 
* Hort. Kew. 
