66 THE SWEET POTATO. 



^yitli the same name growing in their own patches, 

 observe and condemn, and so experimentation gets 

 into discredit. As the writer himself intends to 

 work further on the sweet potato in the future, he 

 feels the necessity of straightening out the nomen- 

 clature first of all. 



Before advancing any opinion on the character to 

 be used in the classification, the following deserves 

 to be carefully considered: 



All varieties of the sweet potato are supposed 

 to have originated from the same plant; they have 

 varied enormously, and so they are apt to vary more. 

 Therefore, a variety which fits a certain description 

 at present may in the course of a few years produce 

 certain sports which cannot be referred to the 

 original type. This should be expected and would 

 not invalidate the system of classification. These 

 sports belong to a new category and, unless they 

 have developed into a variety already known, they 

 form a new one. This principle seems self-evident, 

 but objections have been made to certain descrip- 

 tions, because plants in the same patch, the produce 

 of the same ancestors, did not agree with each other. 



Then, also, no system of classification can provide 

 names for varieties which are in accord with all 

 names now in use. The example of ''Southern 

 Queen" and the quotations from the various bulle- 

 tins already cited amply demonstrate this. 



In naming the varieties priority of nomenclature 

 should be considered. This the writer would gladly 

 do if the labor involved were not altogether out of 

 proportion to the results. In 1731 Catesby tried to 

 reduce the varieties under cultivation in the Caro- 

 linas to five types. He states, as quoted, that there 

 were at that time a number of conflicting names for 



