The potato is an herbaceous plant producing annual stems from an underground tuber or root-stock which is the part that is used as an article of food. It has white flowers and a green fruit, which, like all the plants of the order to which it belongs, contain a poisonous principle. The native country of the plant is South America. It has been found wild in various parts of Chili, and also near Monte Video, Lima, Quito, Santa Fe de Bogota, and in Mexico. Spain was the country in which this plant was first cultivated in Europe; from thence it extended into Italy. It was first grown in the British Islands by Sir Walter Raleigh in his garden at Youghal in Ireland, but it was not generally cultivated in Great Britain till the middle the last century. The only part of the plant employed as food is the tuber, which is a kind of underground stem. Upon this stem buds are formed which are called “eyes,” and from these, by cutting up the potato, the plant is propagated. The tubers of the wild potato are small in size, but by culture they may be very much enlarged. In this country many varieties of the potato are known under the names of “kidneys,” “rounds,” “reds,” “blues,” “whites,” &c. Many of these varieties are now disappearing, the “white,” “kidney,” and “round” potatoes being preferred to all others. The potato contains large quantities of water (75 per cent.), and less flesh and force-producing matters than any other plant cultivated for human food. It is therefore not adapted for consumption as a principal article of diet, and should only be employed as an addition to more nutritious kinds of food. It contains a variety of mineral matters, which also render it valuable as an article of diet. It has for many years been liable, in Europe, to a diseased condition, in which the water seems to be increased, and decomposition consequently readily sets in. The decayed parts are infested by a fungus, but this has not been shown to have anything to do with the production of the disease. Potatoes are largely employed in this country for the production of starch, which is used for a variety of purposes in the arts and manufactures. Potatoes are cooked in many ways, and all the varieties of food which can be obtained from the flour of the cerealia may be procured from the potato, as starch, macaroni, vermicelli, &c. The analysis of the Potato may be seen in Case 8, as well as various preparations from it. RICE. This plant belongs to the natural order of grasses. It is a native of East India, and is extensively cultivated throughout Asia, in North and South Carolina, and other parts of the world. Although more largely consumed by the inhabitants of the world than any other grain, it contains less flesh and force-producing matter.