406 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 30. 
solitary fisherman who makes the crazy hut his cheerless 
abode, and that only through the dreary season of winter. 
The Peony also extends over the crests of the northern 
precipices, but the herbage more general consists of the 
gigantic Smyrvium olusalrum, Lavntera arborea, Hyosciamus 
nigcr, and a brush-wood of Liguslrum vulgare. The seeds 
have been strung and worn round the neck as beads, orna¬ 
mental from their beautiful colour (whence, probably, the 
specific name), and, in a more credulous age, not without 
reference to certain cabalistic purposes, as a Fug a Ihemoinim, 
and protector from the powers of darkness.” (Smith. 
Martyn. Withering. Gerard. Phillips.) * 
Renewing our history of the Potato from the date 
where we concluded last week, we find that Potato 
cultivation spread rapidly in Ireland; and it became 
established, it is said, in Lancashire, and that por¬ 
tion of our northern coast still celebrated for its cul¬ 
ture, owing to some being on board a vessel wrecked 
upon its shore. Yet the value of the root was not 
generally known at a still later period; for in a time of 
scarcity, namely, in the March of 1603, it required to 
be recommended as a crop of national importance, in a 
letter addressed to the Royal Society..* The writer of 
this letter was Mr. Buckland, a Somersetshire gentle¬ 
man ; and the recommendation was referred for consh 
deration to a committee of the society. The report of 
that committee was favourable, and the society not only 
urged its cultivation to landed proprietors, but requested 
1 Mr. Evelyn to enforce the society’s opinions in his 
“ Sylva," then publishing under its auspices, although 
it was no favourite with him, for 1664, in his “ Kalen- 
darium Hortcnse, he says, “Plant potatoes in February 
in jour worst ground.” Before the "Sylva" appeared, 
namely, in 1664, was published a pamphlet, the first 
devoted to the subject of cultivating the potato, and 
bearing this prolix title — "England's happiness in¬ 
creased, or a sure and easy remedy against all succeeding 
dear years, by a plantation of the roots called potatoes, 
whereof (with the addition of wheat flour) excellent, good, 
and wholesome bread may be made, every year, eight or 
nine months together, for half the charges as formerly. 
Also, by the planting of these roots, 10,000 men in Eng¬ 
land and Wales, who know not how to live, or what to do 
to get a maintenance for their families, may, of one acre 
of ground, make T30 per annum. Invented and pub¬ 
lished, for the good of the poorer sorts, by John Forster, 
Gent., of Harslop, in Buckinghamshire.’’ He says that 
the potatoes he recommends for general cultivation 
i “ are the Irish potatoes, little differing from those of 
I Virginia, save only in the colour of their white flowers. 
These roots, although they came at first from the Indies, 
yet prosper well in Ireland, where there are whole fields 
of them, from whence they have been brought into 
'Wales and the north parts of England, where they like¬ 
wise prosper and increase exceedingly.” Pie recommends 
a dry, well-drained soil for them, to be enriched with 
dung if necessary. Planting in March, with tubers cut 
into quarters or halves, to be buried six inches deep and 
eight inches asunder. The roots, lie says, may be begun 
to be taken up in September, and as wanted until March; 
so that even then it was known to the cultivators that the 
colds of winter would not destroy the tubers; and Mr. 
* Although not extensively cultivated, yet it began to be esteemed; 
for, in 1655, MufFet observed, that even the husbandman bought its roots 
to please his wife.— {Health's Improvement). There was some sly allu¬ 
sion in this; for Parkinson, in 1656, observes, that the potato “was 
foolishly called the apples of youth ; ” and Shaltspere makes Falslaff 
include it in some of his wanton ribaldry. 
Forster further adds, that the very small roots must be left 
in the ground to produce a crop the next year. In conclu¬ 
sion, be gives directions for making potato bread, potato 
biscuits, potato pudding, potato custards, and potato 
cheesecakes. The produce from good ground was three 
or four heaped bushels per rod. No one, he says, will 
grudge for them a shilling per bushel. Mr Foster then 
considers the growth of potatoes as a political question, 
and recommends the King, Charles the 2nd, to order an 
importation of the root from Ireland; and that every 
man in every parish shall grow an acre or two; and 
that, out of every Y30 worth grown in a parish, £b 
shall be paid to the King! Fie concludes by stating 
how the potato may he raised from seed instead of from 
the root. 
Notwithstanding the widely-disseminated opinions of 
the Royal Society, and these published appeals to the 
public, the introduction of the potato, as an object of 
cultivation, was extremely slow. 
Worlidge, in 1687, although he remarked that the 
potato was then common in some parts of the continent, 
merely suggests that they may he useful for swine or 
other cattle. 
Houghton, writing in 1699, says, they were then very 
common in Lancashire, being introduced from Ireland, 
and that they begin to spread over England. The roots 
were boiled or roasted, and eaten with butter and sugar! 
(Collections ii. 468.) 
Sharrock, Ray, Lisle, Bradley, Mortimer, &c., writing 
at the close of the 17th, and early in the 18th century, 
make most slighting mention of the potato, and even 
Miller, in the 4to edition of his Dictionary, published as 
late as 1771, only mentions the same two varieties, the 
red and the white tubered, which had been noticed by 
writers a century his predecessors. 
Salmon, who wrote in 1711, speaks of the Virginian, 
and the English, or Irish potato, as distinct kinds, 
though his description shows their identity—the only 
difference being, that the colour of the skin of the tubers 
of the first was dirty white, and of the second, red. 
“ They are only nursed up in gardens in England and 
[reland, where they flourish and come to perfection, pro¬ 
digiously increasing to a vast plenty. The roots are 
boiled, baked, or roasted.”—( Salmon’s Herbal, 905.) 
London and Wise, in the seventh edition of their 
“ Compleat Gardener," published in 1719, do not even 
mention the potato (but it must be remembered that 
this is only an abridged translation of M. Quintinye’s 
work, published some years previously). However, 
even as late as about 1770, the potato was not known 
generally in the south-western counties. The late pre- , 
sklent of the Horticultural Society, writing in 1831, I 
when he was seventy-two years of age, says— 
“I can just recollect the time when the potato was 
