SPECIES OF TUBER-BEARING SOLANUMS. 447 
flowers and corresponding both in this and in all other respects with Dunal's 
description, and the other very similar to it but bearing white flowers. In 
both forms the jessamine-like scent of the flowers is very noticeable. Of 
the violet-flowered form I have had very many tubers collected in a wild 
state in Uruguay, and Professor Archeavaleta of Montevideo assures me that 
there is no other form to be found in a wild state in Uruguay. There is, 
however, reason to think that the white-flowered variety was introduced 
into France from Uruguay by a Colonel Robido in the year 1895. Many 
attempted pollinations were made with both varieties, but only one weak 
seedling from each has been obtained. 
In 1901 M. Labergerie, of Verriéres, Vienne, stated that some of the tubers 
of Solanum Commersonii (white-flowering type), which had been given 
him in the spring of that year by Professor Heckel of Marseilles, had given 
The supposed new 
rise to a new variety bv “sporting " or bud variation. 
v m T 
plant was named by M. Labergerie ** Solanum Commersonii * Violet.” 
(Plate 40. “ Solanum Commersonii * Violet, " Labergerie, foliage, flowers, &e.) 
Much controversy has arisen in regard to it, since it differs entirely from 
Solanum Commersonii in the character of its tuber, foliage, flower, and habit of 
growth, as well as in the form and size of its pollen-grains. On account 
of the very close resemblance in all its morphological features to the variety 
of the cultivated potato known on the Continent аз Paulsen’s * Blue Giant ” 
(Plate 41. Paulsen’s “Blue Giant” Potato, foliage, flowers, &e.), it has 
been concluded by most investigators who have grown the so-called “ sport ”’ 
and the latter variety side by side in the same soil, that a stray tuber of 
the * Blue Giant? must have found its way accidentally into the plantations 
of Solanum Commersonii т M. Labergerie’s garden. 
(Plate 42. Solanum Commersonii, Dun., flowers, tubers, &e. Plate 48. 
“Solanum Commersonii Violet, ? Labergerie, flowers, tubers, Ke. Plate 44. 
Paulsen’s “ Blue Giant” Potato, flowers, tubers, &c.)—On reference to 
Plate 39 it will be noticed that the seed-berries are distinetly cordiform in 
shape, much more so than is seen in any other tuber-bearing Solanum, the 
usual form of berry in the wild species being round or slightly oval, and in 
almost all the cultivated potatoes distinctly round. The pollen-grains shown 
on Plate 39 are entirely regular and elliptical in form. In both these 
respects true Solanum Commersoni differs greatly from the “ sport” sup- 
posed to have been derived from it, as will be seen on reference to Plate 40. 
A comparison between Plates 42 and 48 will show not only the relative 
form and size of the tubers in Solanum Commersonii and in the presumed 
sport, but also the fact that the tubers of the former (see Plate 49), as in the 
case of nearly all other wild species, are borne at the extremity of long 
underground stolons, whereas the tubers of the * sport," like all cultivated 
potatoes, are produced close to the base of the stem. А further comparison 
