But this had to return disabled to
England without touching land.[3]
Sir Joseph Banks, the well-known naturalist, and President of the Royal
Society from 1777 till his death in 1820, was at great pains to collect
the history of the introduction of the potato into these countries. His
account is, that Raleigh's expedition, granted to him under patent "to
discover such remote heathen and barbarous lands, not yet actually
possessed by any Christian prince, nor inhabited by Christian people, as
to him shall seem good," brought home the potato of Virginia. This
Charter bears date 25th March, 1584, and was a new and more extensive
one than the first granted to him, which was in June, 1578. With this
expedition sailed one Thomas Heriot, called the Mathematician, who was
probably sent out to examine and report upon the natural history of such
countries as they might discover. He wrote an account of Virginia, and
of the products of its soil, which is printed in the first volume of De
Bry's collection of Voyages. Under the article "Roots," he describes a
plant which he calls Opanawk. "These roots," he says, "are round, some
as large as a walnut, others much larger; they grow in damp soil, many
hanging together as if fixed with ropes.
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