The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-15
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

tato stories created some interest and
 that a reader in Attalia. MT. Ed. Dd.
 Hammer, was kind enough to send in fur
 ther information on the subject of po-
 tatoes.
 He was good enough 10 transcribe from
 sThe Discovery and Conquest of Flor
 ida, by Don Ferdinando De Soto,'' writ
 ten by gentleman of Elvas employed in all the action, and translated out of the ! Portuguese by Richard Makluyt. in a re-
 print from the edition of 1911, the follow ing " f.ahletdata:
 'The citie of & Iago hath fourscore
 houses, which are great and well con-
 trived (The date is Whitsunday, 15SS0
 The most part of their walles made of
 bords, and are covered with thatch; it
 hath some houses builded with lime and stone, and covered with tiles. It hath orchards, and many trees in them, diff
 fcring from those of Spaine; there be hgge trees, which bear fgges as big as ones fist yellow within, and of small , taste; and other trees. which bear a fruit which they call ananes, in making and
 bignes like to small pineapple; 1t is fruit very sweete in taste; the shel being : taken away, the kernel is like piece of fresh cheese.
 f Tn the granges abroad in the countre there are other great pineapples, which grow on low trees, and are like the aloe 7 tree; they are of very good smell and
 exceeding good taste. Other trees do , beare a fruit which they call mameis of
 the bignes of peaches. (Note: The man.
 mee apple, well known in the West In- dies) This the islanders do hold for the
 best fruit of the country. There is an-
 other fruit which they call guayabas CNote: Guavas) like filberds, as bigge as
 fgges. There are other trees as high as
 a javelin, having only one stocke without any bough, and the leaves as long as a. casting dart; and the fruite is of the bignesse and fashion of g. cucumber, one
 bunch beareth 20 or 30, and as they ripen,
 the tree bendeth downeward with them; | they are called in this countrie plan tanos, and are of good taste, and ripen after they be gathered; but those are the
 better which ripen upon the tree itselfe; U they beare fruit but once; and the tree
 being cut downe, there spring up others out of the but which beare the next yeere.
 There is another fruit. whereby many
 people are sustained, and chiefly the slaves, which are called batatas. (Note: r The convolvulus batata, or sweet pota- h to) These grow now in the Isle of Ter cera, belonging to the Kingdome of Por-
 tugal, and they grow within the earth,
 and are like fruit called iname (Note:
 Say iname, since corrupted into yam. The t n is so marked as to make it sound as d though followed by " as inyame); e they have almost the taste of a chestnut : The bread of this countrie is also made : of rootes, which like the batatas. a And the stocke whereon those rootes doe 4 grow is like an eder-tree; they make ;, their ground in little hfllocks and in each /. of them they thrust four or five stakes, and they gather the rootes a yeare and
 halfe after they set them. If any one
 thinking 1t is batata, or potato roote.
 chance to eat of it never so little, hee is in great danger of death. which was scene ,r by experience in soldier, who as sone I as hee had eaten a very little Of one . of these rootes, hee died quicklle. They II pare these rootes and stampe them, and Q souese them in a thing like a presse; '- the juyce that cometh from them is of o an evill smell The bread is of little
 taste, and less substance CNote: This is a only the case with the uncooked cassava l. Iroot.)"
 We have here, included in the fruits and
 food products of the country in and
 around Santiago, Cuba, found by the ,e Spaniards on their arrival in 153S, a very l. satisfactory account of the potato, and d the origin of the name so far as avail D. able at this time. It will be seen that ,e yam" is a corruption of "iname.' We rs speak of "yams,' but the true yam (Dio- i'll lscaren) is seldom grown in this country.
 The sweet potato is known bstanically as V. lIpomaea batatas formerly as Convolvulus s. lbatatas). A. de Candolle concludes after o- weighing the evidence that the sweet pe- t. tato is in all probability of American d, origin, where it has been cultivated from h. prehistoric times by the aborigines. Some a. authorities think it is derived from Ipo- u, maeo fastigata.
 or : Gerarde mentions it in his Herbal in ". 1897 under the name Batatas Virginiana
 He tells us that those he grew in his gar .; den he bought at "the Exchange, in Lon o. don," and he gives an interesting account o. of the uses to which they were put, the n manner in which they were prepared as nv "sweetmeats'' and the invigorating prop
 critics assigned to them. The allusion ir ,r Merry Wivese of Windsor and other to Of Shakespeare's plays in all probability .st referred to this plant, and not to the lrisf VII potato.
 !" The sweet potato is not suitable for the IT. climate of the United Kingdom, and '' never saw any growing or served al 'u meals during my student days in Flu D rope, but I do recall most interesting he Incident in my travels from Stockholm i's 10 Christiania. In the same compart' 's ment was Norwegian farmer, and il V our talk happened to mention the swee'
 potato, and was told that he had never
 heard of any such thing. He was tre-
 t,,o,douS1,, iptarastad and stated that he