Abstract
AN article on “The Origin of our Potato,” which appeared in our columns on May 6, contained these words: “It would be a fitting observance of the third centenary … if we could celebrate it, not by speeches and after-dinner toasts to the memory of Drake or of Ralegh, but by clearly laying down our lines of inquiry, for they have been very ill-defined.” These words, penned by our contributor with then no definite idea as to the way in which various thinkers could be brought together to help to lay down lines of inquiry, have had their effect. The proprietors of the St. Stephen's Hall took the subject up, and in a circular headed 1586–1886, printed in old English type, referred to the article in NATURE as drawing attention to the fact that 1886 was the accepted date for the tercentenary, and announcing their intention to celebrate it in the spirit suggested, with Conferences and an historic and scientific Exhibition, conjoined with a display of all known varieties of tubers that could be obtained. A “Scientific Committee of Consultation” readily offered their services to arrange the “historic and scientific” portions of the Exhibition and to conduct the Conferences. Leaving, as it was seen we were, the old lines of cultivation, and entering on a more thoughtful, a more scientific way of procedure, the turning-point appeared to demand a recognition of the past, an exposition of present knowledge, and something tangible of the on-look into the future.
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The Potato Tercentenary . Nature 35, 175–177 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/035175a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/035175a0