Although this plant contains but a small quantity of flesh and
force-producing matter, it yields an abundance of starch and mineral
matters in a condition which acts very beneficially on the human system,
and its introduction into Europe has been of the greatest benefit to its
teeming populations.
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.