HORTICULTURE AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 141 



vated varieties are bud varieties from the subterranean parts. Every year at 

 digging time, if we wish to keep the varieties true, we are obliged to throw 

 out those which, we say, are 'degenerated.' This so-called degeneracy 

 constantly tends to remove the products from the starting point, and has, 

 then, the result of producing new varieties. 



" Modifications in potatoes can also have reference to the manner of vege- 

 tation or growth of the underground parts. Such is the case in the variety 

 called Pouse-dehout ['tubers standing on end']. This name was given the 

 variety because the tubers, instead of lying horizontally, or nearly so, are 

 placed upright, one against the other, much as small pieces of wood are 

 arranged for the making of charcoal. 



" The Marjolin we consider nothing else than a peculiarity of vegetation. 

 This is proved by the fact that its characters, — not blossoming and maturing 

 very early, — are not constant. It has produced two other varieties by modi- 

 fications of its underground parts. One variety is the Marjolin tardive 

 [late Marjolin], called also Marjolin de deuxieme Saison, which is sometimes 

 sold in the Paris markets for the Hollande jaune [yellow Holland]. It is 

 remarkable for the period of its growth, which is more prolonged than that 

 of the type, and it is also covered each year with flowers, while its parent 

 scarcely ever blossoms. The other variety has no resemblance to the 

 Marjoli7i in form. It is round and its sunken eyes give it exactly the appear- 

 ance of the ordinary yellow potato. When we cultivated the Marjolin there 

 was not a year when we did not obtain round ones, although we had planted 

 long ones very true in appearance. 



" A very remarkable example of the modifications furnished by the ordi- 

 nary yellow potato, is the following : In a square planted exclusively with 

 this variety, very true in appearance, we gathered a certain number of which 

 the skin was more or less dark; some had yellow flesh, others white. Planted 

 separately, these bud varieties have given us potatoes round in form like the 

 parent type, but among which there were found some entirely violet in both 

 exterior and interior, and some had black flesh slightly marbled with white. 

 This modification of color was not the only change. In some cases the 

 quality was very much modified. Thus, instead of being nearly like the 

 yellow potato, the flesh of these varieties was compact, neither good nor bad. 



*'We give two other examples of bud-variation in potatoes, observed by us 

 at the Museum * in 1864: 



''Half of a plat was planted with the smooth long yellow called Hollande^ 

 and half with the regular long red commonly called Vitelotte lisse. The 

 first half yielded tubers similar to those which we had planted. The second 

 half, on the contrary, produced tubers differing from the parent in color, 

 being of a reddish yellow, although the form remained about the same. The 

 quality, also, did not vary, so that while we confounded them sometimes 

 with the Hollande, we were able to distinguish them readily when cooked, 

 as they remained whole, while the others fell to pieces. 



"On the end of a plat where we had planted fifty of the ordinary round 

 yellow potato, one plant grew until late in the season and gave round potatoes 

 of a deep red. 



" In this same year, 1864, in a square planted entirely to Ghardon potato, 

 we observed some plants exactly similar to the others in growth and appear- 

 ance but which differed entirely in the color of the flowers, being dull white, 



* Museum d'histoire natnrelle, Paris. 



