potation penny (potash on pen"i)

Money paid by the scholars or their friends to the master of a school to enable him to give an entertainment (usually in Lent) to the scholars on quitting school. In some counties of England this is still continued, and is called "the drink potato potato), This Plant (which is called of some Sisarum Peruvi anum, or Skyrrets of Peru) is generally of us called Pota tus or Potato's. It hath long rough flexible branches trailing upon the ground, like unto those of Pompions, whereupon are set greene three cornered leaves very like those of the wilde Cucumber. Clusius calleth it Batata, Camotes, Amotes, and Ignames: in English, Potatoes, Pota tus, and Potades. Gerarde, Herball (1636), Of Potato's . Candied potatoes are A then i ans' meat. Marston, Scourge of Villanie, iii. 2. One of the esculent tubers of the common plant Solanum tuberosum, or the plant itself. The potato is a native of the Andes, particularly in Chili and Peru, but in the variant boreale it reaches north to New Mexico. It was probably first introduced into Europe from the region of Quito by the Spaniards, in the earlier part of the fifteenth century. In 1586 it was brought to England from Virginia, where, however, it was probably derived from a Spanish source. Its progre in Europe was slow, its culture, even in Ireland, not becoming general till the middle of the eighteenth century; but it is now a staple food in most temperate climates. The fruit of the potato-plant is a worthle green berry; its useful product is the underground tubers, which in the wild plant are small, but are much enlarged under cultivation. These tubers, which are of a roundish or oblong shape, sometimes flattish, are set with "eyes," really the axils of rudimentary leaves, containing ordinarily several buds, and it is by means of these that the plant is usu ally propagated. The food-value of the potato lies mostly in starch, of which it contains from 15 to 20 or 25 per cent. It is deficient in albuminoids and phosphates. Besides their ordinary food-use, potatoes are a source of manufactured starch; and spirits are now distilled from them to a considerable extent, chiefly in Germany. The tops (in America called vines, in England halms, in Scotland shaws ) contain, together with the fruit, a poisonous alkaloid, solanin, absent in the tubers except when exposed to the sun. The varieties of the potato are numerous. The crop is often seriously injured by the potato beetle and the potato-rot. To distinguish it from the yellow sweet potato, this plant is sometimes called white potato or (from its being one of the chief food-staples in Ireland) Irish potato. Virgin i an Potato hath many hollow flexible branches trailing upon the ground, three square, uneven, knotted or kneed in sundry places at certaine distances: from the which knots cometh forth one great leaf made of divers leaves. Because it hath not only the shape and proportion of Potato's, but also the pleasant taste and vertues of the same, we may call it in English Potatoes of America or Virginia. Gerarde, Herball (1636), Of Potatoes of Virginia. They dygge also owte of the ground certeyne rootes growynge of theim selues, whiche they caule Botatas .... The skyn is sumwhat towgher than eyther of nauies or mu heroms, and of earthy coloure: But the inner meate thereof is ver ye whyte. Peter Martyr (tr. in Eden's First Books on America, ed. [Arber, p. 131). Canada potato, the Jerusalem artichoke. - Chat potatoes. See chat4.- Cree potato, Psoralea esculent a: so called as used by the Cree Indians. Hog's potato, in California, the death-cama , Zygadenus venenosus, whose tubers are said to be eaten eagerly by hogs. - Indian potato. ( a ) The groundnut or wild bean, Apios tuberosa: so called on account of its small edible tubers. (0) The liliaceous genus Calochortus: so called from its bulb or corm.Irish potato. See def. 2. - Native potato, of New South Wales, Marsdenia virid i flora; of Tasmania, Gastrodia sesa moides, an orchid with a rootstalk thickened into a tuber. Oil of potatoes, an amylic alcohol obtained from spirits made from potatoes. It is somewhat oily in appearance, has a strong smell, at first pleasant but afterward nauseous, and a very acrid taste. - Potato starch a fecula obtained from the potato, and also called English arrow root.- Seaside potato, Ipomæa biloba ( I. Pes - capræ ), а twining and creeping plant of tropical shores in both hemispheres, said to reach a length sometimes of 100 feet. -Small potatoes, something petty or insignificant or contemptible. [Slang, U. S.] All our American poets are but small potatoes compared Quoted in De Vere's American isms. with Bryant. I took to attend in' Baptist meet in', because the Presbyterian minister here is such small potatoes that 't wan't edifying to sit under his preach in'. Mrs. Whitcher, Widow Bedott Papers, p. 188. Spanish potato, the sweet potato. - Sweet potato. (a) A plant of the convolvulus family, Ipomӕa Batatas, or one of its spindle-shaped fleshy esculent roots. The plant is a creeping, rarely twining, vine, with variously heart School, p. 25. Under the head of Manchester School, Car lisle gives a copy of an indenture of feoffment by Hugh Bexwyke and Johnne Bexwyke, on April 1, 1524, containing ordinances, one of which is: "Item, that every schoolmaster shall teach freely... without any money or other rewards taken therefore, as Cock-penny, Victor-penny, Potation penny, or any other whatsoever it be" (vol. i. p. 677). N. and Q., 7th ser., IX. 90. was first obtained by Davy, in 1807, by the electrolysis of potash; but its preparation in the large way is effected by the ignition of a mixture of charcoal and pota ium carbonate in a mercury bottle or iron tube coated with clay. In perfectly pure and dry air it undergoes no change; but in ordinary air it soon becomes coated with mod. E. also potatoe, pottatoc, potatus, potades (quasi NL.); also botatas = G. potate, sweet potato, Dan. potet, potetes = Sw. potät, potates, potatis, white potato ( leaves, and a blo om like that the common morning-glory, but le open, and rose-purple with a white border. Its value lies in the roots, which are richer in starch, and still more in sugar, than the common potato. Their use is very much that of the latter, but in Mexico they are said to be regarded as a sweetmeat, and in Spain they are made into a preserve. They are red, yellow, or white in different varieties, and range in weight from that of the common potato up to many pounds. A variety in the southern United States is called yam. The sweet potato appears to have originated in tropical Amer ica, but is referred by some to the East Indies, or to both hemispheres. It is widely cultivated in warm climates, and is succe fully grown in the United States as far north as New Jersey and Illinois, and even Michigan. ( b ) In Bengal, the yam. Telinga potato, A morpho phallus campanulatus, an araceous plant much cultivated in India for its esculent tubers. - White potato. See def. 2. potato Wild potato, in Jamaica, Ipomæa fastigiata, a tuber-bearing plant, unlike the sweet potato in its climbing habit. potato-beetle(pō-tāʼtō-bē"tl), n. A chrysomelid beetle, the notorious Doryphora decemlineata, which up to 1855 or 1856 lived in the Rocky Mountain region, feeding upon the wild Solanum rostratum, but which, as the cultivated potato reached its habitat, increased enormously and began to spread to the east. In 1874 it reached the Atlantic coast at several points, and it has since been a pest in almost the entire country. It has several times made its way to Europe, but has been stamped out. Both larva and beetle feed upon the leaves of the potato, and the pupa is formed in the earth at the foot of the plant. There are three generations annually, and the perfect beetles hibernate. The most common and effective remedy is Paris green. See cut under beetle2.