39 
A Curious Potato. 
A curious freak of nature is shown in a potato brought to me 
two years ago by Mr. Victor Shinn. One of the “ eyelets” had 
> “grown; the shoot entered the substance of 
the potato at once after a sudden curve, and 
Q there gave rise to another potato, perfect in 
y every respect, covered with a thin epidermis, 
---f but without “eyelets.” The surrounding tissues 
ry of the larger tuber, however, were not supplied 
with such an epidermis. I have noticed that 
the latter feature is also presented when roots 
and shoots of other plants grow through the 
substance of a potato. After giving rise to the potato, the shoot 
passed for a slight distance beneath the surface of the old potato, 
and had already produced a slight opening in the skin on its way 
out when its vigor was probably lost and it seems to have ceased 
growth. The small potato, however, attained quite a fair size. 
Description of the figure: A, the smaller potato; a, the 
place of attachment to the ingrowing shoot; b, the origin of this 
shoot at the eyelet ; c, the opening at which it reappeared. 
A. F. FOERSTE. 
N 
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Notes from Schenectady, New York. 
In 1884, the first summer of my residence here, when taking 
a walk along the Mohawk River, I discovered on the “ sand- 
bank,” between the New York Central and Hudson River Rail- 
road and the well-known Sander’s Lake, a grass, Bouteloua 
racemosa, Lag., (B. curtipendula, Gray), whose distribution is 
mainly from Illinois to Texas and Arizona. The form of my | 
specimens is, however, more slender and taller than those from 
the West. A steep sandy bank was perfectly covered with the 
purplish drooping spikes of this new comer, among other grasses 
and Asparagus officinalis, L. The rare Panicum xanthophysum, — 
Gray, abounds in the shady pine groves of the town of Rotter- 
dam. Aster amethystinus, Gray, grows along roadsides in Rees- 
ville. Zyrapa natans, the water-chestnut of Europe, was planted 
in Sander’s Lake, and grows there luxuriantly. 
J. H. Wiese. 
