the American Botanist 



VOL. XXIII JOLIET, ILL., NOVEMBER, 1917 No. 4 



ffied o'er the forest peers the setting sun, 

 XJhe line of yellow light dies fast away 

 Uhat crowned the eastern copse; and chill and dun 

 ^alls on the moor the brief Jfovember day. 



— Keble. 



THE FRUIT OF THE POTATO 



By Willard N. Clute. 



"OVEN the botanizer is aware that the common potato 

 •*~* (Solanum tuberosum) is a member of the nightshade 

 family and closely related to the tomato, egg-plant, wonder- 

 berry, and other inhabitants of our gardens valued for their 

 fruits, but this relationship is usually assumed from resem- 

 blances between the flowers rather than from any that may 

 exist in the fruits, for potato fruits are rather scarce at present. 

 A good many people probably imagine that potatoes do not 

 produce fruits and seeds ; in fact, the tubers are often regarded 

 as a sort of seed and the term "seed potatoes" 1 has come to be 

 commonly used for such tubers as are used for planting. That 

 potatoes really do produce fruits like the other nightshades 

 may be seen from our illustration where seven fruits are shown 

 natural size. When growing they look exactly like small green 

 tomatoes, but unlike tomatoes they are not edrble. 



The potato, like various other species which multiply 

 rapidly by vegetative means, shows a tendency to omit seed 

 production and to depend almost entirely upon this new means 

 of propagation and distribution. Whether the lack of fruits 



