+Potato+—_Solanum tuberosum_, Linnæus. In 1855 I stated and discussed what was then known about the origin of the potato, and about its introduction into Europe.[105] I will now add the result of the researches of the last quarter of a century. It will be seen that the data formerly acquired have become more certain, and that several somewhat doubtful accessory questions have remained uncertain, though the probabilities in favour of what formerly seemed the truth have grown stronger. It is proved beyond a doubt that at the time of the discovery of America the cultivation of the potato was practised, with every appearance of ancient usage, in the temperate regions extending from Chili to New Granada, at altitudes varying with the latitude. This appears from the testimony of all the early travellers, among whom I shall name Acosta for Peru,[106] and Pedro Cieca, quoted by de l’Ecluse,[107] for Quito. In the eastern temperate region of South America, on the heights of Guiana and Brazil, for instance, the potato was not known to the aborigines, or if they were acquainted with a similar plant, it was _Solanum Commersonii_, which has also a tuberous root, and is found wild in Montevideo and in the south of Brazil. The true potato is certainly now cultivated in the latter country, but it is of such recent introduction that it has received the name of the English Batata.[108] According to Humboldt it was unknown in Mexico,[109] a fact confirmed by the silence of subsequent authors, but to a certain degree contradicted by another historical fact. It is said that Sir Walter Raleigh, or rather Thomas Herriott, his companion in several voyages, brought back to Ireland, in 1585 or 1586, some tubers of the Virginian potato.[110] Its name in its own country was _openawk_. From Herriott’s description of the plant, quoted by Sir Joseph Banks,[111] there is no doubt that it was the potato, and not the batata, which at that period was sometimes confounded with it. Besides, Gerard[112] tells us that he received from Virginia the potato which he cultivated in his garden, and of which he gives an illustration which agrees in all points with _Solanum tuberosum_. He was so proud of it that he is represented, in his portrait at the beginning of the work, holding in his hand a flowering branch of this plant.