KITCHEN GARDENING UNDER JAMES I. 
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brought the potato back with them from the New World, in 
1585 or 1586, is a fact. But it was also brought to Europe by 
the Spaniards between 1580 and 1585. The potato has been 
found in a wild state only in Chili, but it is probable that before 
the arrival of the Spaniards in America the plant had spread 
by cultivation into Peru and New Granada. From thence it 
was most likely introduced, in the latter half of the sixteenth 
century, into that part of the United States now known as 
Virginia and North Carolina, and there discovered by Raleigh, 
unless he found it among the provisions of some Spanish ship 
captured by him on its way from Chili or Peru. Gerard gives 
a picture and account of the “ potatoe of Virginia ” (Solatium 
tuberosum) which “ he had received ” from that place. The 
original species still exists in cultivation in Europe, and differs 
but slightly from the ordinary varieties now grown. Gerard's 
description of the flower and root is accurate. He calls it “ a 
meate for pleasure/’ being “ either rested in the embers, or 
boiled and eaten with oile, vinegar and pepper, or dressed any 
other way by the hand of some cunning in cookery.” He thus 
describes the tuber : “ Thicke, fat and tuberous, not much 
differing either in shape, colour, or taste from the common pota¬ 
toes, save that the rootes thereof are not so great nor long, some 
of them round as a ball, some ouall or egge fashion, some longer 
and others shorter, which knobbie rootes are fastened into the 
stalkes with an infinite number of threddie strings.” “ The 
common potato ” he refers to is at first sight puzzling, but he 
really means the Batata or Sweet Potato, Ipomeea Batatas. 
The origin of this plant is also a subject of discussion ; America 
and Eastern Asia both lay claim to it, but the strongest evidence 
seems to point to its introduction from the New World. 
Christopher Columbus is supposed to have brought the plant 
back to Queen Isabella, and early in the sixteenth century it 
was cultivated in Spain. Both Gerard and Parkinson grew it 
in their gardens, but as it was always killed by the frost at the 
end of September, they never saw it in flower. Sweet potatoes 
were eaten in various ways, roasted, sopped in wine, or cooked 
with prunes, and conserves were made of them. They were 
sometimes called Skirrets of Peru. In the Index to the 
Theatrum Botanicum of Parkinson the reference is to “ Potatoes 
