THE HONOUR OF THE POTATO.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20320, 31 January 1928, Page 15

THE HONOUR OF THE POTATO.

ITS PLACE IN PROVERB AND POETRY. Sir Arbuthnot Lane, writing lately about the craze for slimness of figure, had eight or nine wise words to say in honour of the potato, words of comfort to those whose minds are troubled because potatoes have been made the scapegoats of their bodily fatness. It is little to give up cakes (and ale with cakes even) in an earnest desire for the slim figure a la mode, but to give up potatoes—ay, there's a wrench! Now we learn on highest authority that potatoes are not fattening, if taken in moderation; they contain 80 per cent, of water, writes Marcus Woodward in John o’ London’s Weekly. , THE BASHFUL POTATO. The phrase recalls one of its places in the realms of poetry, the Gilbertian lines about a sentimental x jass >ion for vegetables:— “ An attachment a la Plato for a bashful young potato, or a not too French French bean.” The bashfulness of the potato in hiding its virtues underground while displaying the poisonous-looking blossoms which advertises its place in the tribe of the nightshades is also noted by the proverbmakers. “ Like a potato,” runs an old saying, “ the only good part of him is underground.” The original thought was Samuel Butler’s: “ A degenerate nobleman, or one that is not proud of his birth, is like a turnip. There is nothing good of him but that which is underground.” The potato being so good to eat is associated with greed in the saying: “ Little pigs eat great potatoes,” and in the German one, “The stupidest peasants have the biggest potatoes.” A quaint phrase, applied to those who expect to be fed without working, runs: “Would you have potatoes grow by the pot-side?” While potatoes are often banished from the diet of the gouty, to this day there are countrymen who commonly carry them in their pockets as a charm against rheumatism. To John Gerard and his “ Hcrball ” belong the honour of having been the first to describe and -picture ‘.he potato, introduced to Europe in the latter part of the sixteenth century. Gerard’s portrait in the hcrball shows him carrying a potato-spray. He named the plant “ Virginian ” in error, since it is a native of South America, though it may have been first brought from Virginia to this country by Sir Walter Raleigh’s colonists. “ LET THE SKY RAIN POTATOES.” The name long remained to distinguish it from battatas, or sweet potatoes. The “ kissing comfits ” of Falstaff were made of sweet potatoes or of the roots of eringo, and were reputed to have many comforting properties. It would be sweet potatoes which were referred to in the crytic lines, “ Let thd sk; rain potatoes, let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves, hail kissing comfits and snow eringoes,” Gerard was loud in his praise of potatoes as a foundation whereon the sugarbaker might make delicate conserves. In those times they would bo served sopped in wine after being roasted in ashes or boiled with prunes. “ Notwithstanding howsoever they be dressed,” exclaimed Gerard. ‘ they comfort, nourish, and strengthen the body.”