Completing Boris' story:

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> When Peter the Great introduced potatoes to Russia, no one thought to tell
> the serfs that the tuber was edible and the leaves were not; until a few
too
> many serfs died.

The Russian peasants didn't actually die due to eating the leafy part of the
potato, but rather due to effects of a particularly toxic genera of spiders
that took up residence in the newly introduced potatoes that built elaborate
but very tiny webs within the potato canopies. The effect of the spiders'
poison on children was especially virulent, thus the common wisdom came to be
that children serfing the web could only be allowed to do so with adult
supervision.

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Wirt Atmar