They are good food either
boiled or roasted." This must strike anyone as a very accurate
description of the potato. Gerarde, in his Herbal, published in 1597,
gives a figure of the potato under the name of the potato of Virginia.
He asserts that he received the roots from that country, and that they
were denominated Naremberga.
Raleigh's expedition, which seems to have been already prepared, sailed
in April, and having taken possession of that portion of America which
was afterwards named Virginia, in honour of Queen Elizabeth, and by her
own express desire, returned to England about the middle of September of
the same year. Although, as already stated, in all likelihood the potato
of Virginia was introduced into England and Ireland by that expedition,
Sir Joseph Banks was of opinion that the root had come to Europe
earlier. His reasons for thinking so are: 1. Clusius, otherwise
L'Ecluse, the great botanist, when residing in Vienna, in 1598, received
the potato from the Governor of Mons, in Hainault, who had obtained it
the year before from one of the attendants of the Pope's Legate under
the name of Taratoufle,[4] and learned from him that in Italy, where it
was then in use, no person knew whether it came from Spain or America.
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