The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1874-06-20
SOLANUM TURUROSUM.
Date of the Introduction and Use
the Tuber in Europe.


Date of the Introduction and Use of
the Tuber in Europe.
The potato (SOlan,tl,l tuburOsug1l) is
a native of America, and is probably in
digenOus from Chill to Mexico. The
wild plant differs little from the culti-
yated, except that its tubers are small
er. 1t was first introduced into
Europe early III the sixteenth century,
by the SpaDiar's, who discovered 1t IN
the vicinity OF Quito. From Spain it
spread into the Netherlands. Burgundy,
and Italy but was for many years cul-
tivated as a curiosity, and not as an ar
ticle OF diet. Ia 1860 1t xvass carried
from Spain to Ireland by Capt Hawkins.
a slave-trader and in 1885 il was taken
to England by Sir Francis Drake but
it attracted little notice until it was a
third time imported from America, by
Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1923. Thomas
Herlot, mathematician, and one Of the
adventuTers who accompanied Sir Wal
ter Raleigh IN his voyage of discovery
to this country, gives the following
description of the plant The roots
Of this plant are round-some as large as
a walnut, others much larger they
grow in damp ground, many hanging
together, as If fixed on ropes. They
The plant to which Shakespeare alludes
in /" The Merry Wives of Windsor, "
where Falsta6 says:
Let it rain potatoes and hail kissing comfor's (,
was the sweet potato, which was a greN
dainty in the days of Elizabeth.
In his " Herball," published in 1897,
Gerarde mentions the potato, and re-
cOmmends the root to be eaten as a del
icate dish, and not as everyday food
In the time OF James l., potatoes were
furnished for the royal table at the rate
Of 2s. per pound. Through the sue
ceeding reign and the commonwealth
they remained extr2mely scarce, nor
were they generally cultivated until
more than a century after their importa-
tion from Virginia. SO little was the
plant esteemed that London and Wise
do not mention it in the edition of their
Complet' Gardener" published in
17l9; and Bradley, an extensive writer
upon hor icultural subjects, states,
about the same time, that % the potato is
Of less note than horseradish, radish scor-
goners, beets, and skirret."
Toward the close of the eighteenth
century the value of the potato came to
be a ebreciated in England and in Es-
sex county, in 1896, ZOO acres were
planted with the tuber for the supply
of the London market. In Scotland the
importance of the potato as an article
of diet was discovered much earlier.
In 172S the cottagers and small farmers
began to cultivate it generally. The
severity Of the year Of 1742 stimulated
its culture, and it soon thereafter was
relied upon as a serviceable crop. Some
of the Scotch were at first hostile to the
use Of the plant on religious grounds :;
for, said they. potatoes are not men
toned in the Bible"
The potato came into cultivation IN
Germany aud FEaQee ahQnt tt. the ss-.s CO.. Z.
Of Germany the government promoted
its culture by compulsory regulations.
The potato is closely allied 10 the
wholesome eggplant and tomato, and
also to the unwhOlesOme tobacco, and
to the deadly nightshade and henbane,
and to strOmOnium, and belladonna, and
the mandrake, of Scripture. These
plants are all ranged together in the or
der SOlanaceR; and, though some are
used as food or as an agreeable stImu-
liant, all possesses, IN q greater or less
degree, the same poisonous properties.
An extract Of the leaves of the potato
is powerful narcotic, ranking between
bella0Onna and cOnium. Henbane Is o
dangerous narcotic at the time its seeds
are forming, although comparatively
inert at an earlier period. In some
countries its leaves are dried and smok-
ed in lieu of tobacco. The deadly quail
tiles of belladOnna are well known.
Every part Of the plant is poisonous.
1t Is supposed that Shakespeare refers to
this herb in the line, "The insane root
that takes the reason prisoner. Oil OF
/ tobacco is one of the most violent of
known poisons. The ground berries OF
capsicum form the puDgent condiment
/ known as Cayenne pepper.
The family Solonaceae includes up
wards of nine hundred species, which
| are scattered over most parts of the
world, within the Arctic and Antarctic
/ circles.