Note 67 — Chapter VI

The two kinds of potatoes here mentioned by the author do not probably belong to the real species of the potatoe, solanum, but to some other vegetable production of the like kind, such as the Dioscorea alata L., the exterior skin of which is black, but the internal pulpy part, when roasted in the ashes, is white, or of a purple colour. The round potatoes may be a kind of the Spanish potatoes, Convolvulus Batatas, or the gold-coloured root of the Convolvulus Chrysorrhizus, which is not only cultivated, but grows wild also in the islands of the South Sea, and which has been described by my son George in his Treatise De Plantis Esculentis Insularum Maris Pacifici. The Convolvulus Batatas was carried from America by the Spaniards to the Philippines and neighbouring islands; and on that account the plant there is called Castile, because it was first introduced by the Castilians or Spaniards. F.