Potato
or POTATOE, Solanum tuberosum, a well-known plant, the tubers (dilated branches) of which are eaten. It is a native of Chile and Peru.
Some think that it was first brought to Spain from the mountains near Quito early in the 16th century. Thence it spread to Italy and Austria. Sir Walter Raleigh is supposed to have taken it to England in July, 1586. For the next century and a half they were regarded as garden plants only. They gradually made way to the important position which they now occupy in agriculture.