NOTES ON THK WILD POTATO. 67 



in the Garden of the Society, is no more distinguishable from 

 our cultivated varieties than they are from each other. It is true 

 that it has been separated botanically, either as a race or species, 

 under the name of Solanum Comniersonii ; but specimens of this 

 Maglia now before me, gathered in the Garden in 1825, are 

 unquestionably those of the species now cultivated all over Eu- 

 rope. 



Dr. Hooker (^Flora Antarctica, ii. 330) extends the range of 

 the wild potato by including Peru, Mendoza, and Buenos Ayres, 

 the Maglia reaching quite across the continent, and growing 

 about Buenos Ayres in hedges. The last statement is upon the 

 authority of the late Dr. Gillies ; but as it is not quite certain 

 that the plant he found in such situations is really the Maglia, 

 it seems better to limit the undoubted locality of wild potatoes 

 within the parallels of 30= and 48° 8. lat. 



This supposes that the potato is not found truly wild in Peru, 

 but that all tlie northern localities mentioned by authors are those 

 of the cultivated plant. Upon tliis supposition the wild potato 

 has not, as far as I am aware, been brought to Europe since the 

 potato disease broke out ; and if so, experimental proof that the 

 wild South American sort is free from disease remains to be 

 obtained. 



But I believe myself to be in a condition to show that it is 

 a mistake to say that the cultivated potato, that is to say Sola- 

 num tuberosum, is unknown in a wild state in Mexico. To the 

 kindness of Mr. C. A. Uhde, a German gentleman, who has re- 

 sided for many years in the west of Mexico, the Society has 

 been indebted for various samples of wild Mexican potatoes, 

 among which two varieties have been raised, which are undoubt- 

 edly mere forms of the tiue potato, as will be hereafter men- 

 tioned. 



Tubers of another kind were received, July 25th, 1846, from 

 Michuacan and the Valley of Toluca ; and again in May, 

 1847, in a packet marked " Native Mexican Potatoes from an 

 elevation of 8000 feet." These produced a tall species, whose 

 stems and leaves were very hairy, so as to have a somewliat 

 hoary appearance. The plants had a strong tendency to produce 

 a vast number of runners, but scaicely any tubers. The few 

 that were occasionally met with were very small. Some were 

 found an inch and a half in length, and an inch in diameter ; but 

 generally they were not larger than the seeds of kidney beans. 

 Their form is somewhat obovate, tapering to the end attached to 

 the runner; and their colour was whitish. They exhibited no 

 symptoms of disease. 



This potato is also, I think, a mere variety of Solanum tuber- 

 osum, with which it agrees in every thing except its excessive 



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