India,
and is now successfully cultivated both in Bengal and in the Madras
Presidency. It has found a home in the Dutch East Indies and in China;
and its tastes and habits are affectionately studied in Australia. But
as in the tropics it has to be grown at an altitude of three thousand
feet, or more, above sea-level, it can never become so common in hot
countries as in Europe.

It is not only as a food-plant that the potato has secured the respect
and affection of mankind. Starch is made from it both for the laundry
and for the manufacture of farina, dextrin, etc. The dried pulp from
which the starch has been extracted is used for making boxes. From the
stem and leaves an extract is made of a narcotic, used to allay pain in
coughs and other ailments. In a raw state the potato is used as a
cooling application for burns and sores. A spirit is distilled from the
tuber, which in Norway is called 'brandy,' and in other places is used
for mixing with malt and vine liquors. Many of the farinaceous
preparations now so popular in the nursery and sick-room are made
largely of potato-starch; and in some places cakes and puddings are made
from potato-flour.

To the potato are also ascribed properties of another kind. The folklore
of the plant is meagre, considering its wide distribution, but there are
a number of curious superstitions connected with it. In some parts there
is a belief that it thrives best if planted on Maundy Thursday; in
others, that if planted under certain stars it will become watery. In
Devonshire the people believe that the potato is a certain cure for the
toothache--not taken internally, but carried about in the pocket. It is
by several writers mentioned as a reputed cure for rheumatism in the
same way; only it is prescribed that, in order to be an effective cure
in such cases, the potato should be stolen. Mr. Andrew Lang mentions an
instance of faith in the practice of this cure, which he came across in
a London drawing-room. He regards this belief as a survival of the old
superstitions about mandrake, and as analogous to the habit of African
tribes who wear roots round the neck as protection against wild animals.

The value of the potato as food has been much discussed; but it seems to
rank next to the plantain, and a long way behind either rice or wheat.
The author of the Chemistry of Common Life has pointed to the remarkable
physiological likeness of tribes of people who live chiefly on rice,
plantain,