2o6 Conard — Fasciation in 



and the same has been reported to me from Ohio, Kansas^ 

 North CaroHna and Florida. Francis Windle, of West 

 Chester, Pa., tells me that he saw fasciations on the sweet 

 potato forty-five years ago. This plant, therefore, may be 

 truly said to present another fasciated race. Among about 

 two hundred widely differing species reported as being at 

 times fasciated, the sweet potato seems to have been first 

 recorded in 1 897 by my preceptor, Professor J. M. Macfarlane, 

 though observed by him in New Jersey in 189 1, I may state 

 here that this study was taken up at his suggestion, and 

 prosecuted under his generous care and direction. 



So far as man's influence is concerned, the sweet potato 

 may be called an accidentally fasciated race, as opposed to the 

 selected races of Celosia, Crepis, etc. For the conditions 

 fixing this character in the plant have been simply those of 

 high culture. Selection is, in this climate, carried on only 

 with regard to quality and quantity of the edible roots. In 

 opposition to this, I am aAvare that in tropical or sub-tropical 

 regions the sweet potato is largely propagated from the grow- 

 ing stems of the previous crop. In this case the most vigor- 

 ous vines might be selected each time, and these would 

 probably be the fasciated ones, since they are so stout and 

 densely leafy ; thus fasciation might have been bred in by 

 selection ; but on this point no further evidence is at present 

 forthcoming. My friend, Charles Barton, of Marlton, N. J., 

 a considerable grower of " sweets," suggests that an excess 

 of nitrogenous fertilizer (ammonia) in the soil seems to increase 

 the amount of fasciation. At any rate, the evidence seems 

 strong in favor of the view that fasciation in this plant is con- 

 nected with high nutrition. 



Passing now to more special considerations, we would offer 

 the following observ^ations, from notes taken chiefly on the 

 farm of Charles Barton. The normal vine of sweet potato is 

 from two or three to ten or twelve feet long, round, one-eighth 



