potato, potatoe

[Sp. potato.] [BATATAS.] Bot., Hort., Agric., .: Solanum tuberosum, a well-known plant, the tubers (dilated branches) of which are eaten. It is a native of Chili and Peru. Some think that it was first brought to Spain from the mountains near Quito early in the sixteenth century. Thence it spread to Italy and Austria. Sir Walter Raleigh is supposed to have taken it to England in July, 1586, having obtained it from the Virgin i an colonists who had left England in 1584. Gerarde, in his Herbale, figured it in 1597 as "the potatoe of Virginia," where he said he had obtained its roots. Sir Walter Raleigh cultivated potatoes 3204 on his estate of Youghal, near Cork. For the next century and a half they were regarded as garden plants only. They gradually made way to the important position which they now occupy in agriculture. Many varieties are grown, differing in earline , form, size, color, . (1) Oil of potatoes : [FUSEL-OIL.] (2) Sweet potato : [BATATAS.]