116 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



is really due to this peculiarity, or whether the plant does not 

 set abundant fruits because the proper pollinating insect is 

 absent, is a matter about which there seems to be very little 

 information at present. In the opinion of the writer, almost 

 any potato plant would produce fruits and seeds if adequately 

 pollinated. 



However this may be, potato fruits, or potato seed balls 

 as the farmer usually calls them, are not entirely absent from 

 the plants. It is likely that a careful search in any extensive 

 potato patch at the proper season would reveal specimens. The 

 writer has seen them during- the past summer and A. T. Cook, 

 a seedsman of Hyde Park, N. Y., through whose courtesy we 

 are able to reproduce the specimens shown on our frontispiece, 

 harvested more than seven bushels this year. Mr. Cook makes 

 a specialty of raising potato seeds for the trade. 



New varieties of potatoes may originate as sports from 

 forms already under cultivation, but waiting for vegetative 

 sports is a wearying business when one may sow seeds and get 

 a number of variations at once. Not all such variations arc 

 commercially valuable, however. There is likely to be a large 

 number that are worthless for every one that shows a desirable 

 trait. Now and then a finer form may appear. It is said that 

 Luther Burbank got his start in life by breeding a new variety 

 of potato, the Burbank, in this way, but it requires something 

 more than potatoes to duplicate Burbank's successes and even 

 potato seeds, alas, are scarce ! 



