212 REPORT—1857. 
The experiments with these in my garden at the College have been a com- 
parative failure—however, about a tenth of them have come up,—whilst in 
my private garden the six tubers which I planted all came up well, and flowered 
and fruited too freely to expect much advance in the tubers; they came up 
quickly, and were in flower before the “ Lima potatoes” (planted at the same 
time) showed above ground. They are now before me, and present the 
following appearance :—the original tuber has much enlarged, and small and 
imperfect young tubers stud the sides of the old one; they are very rough 
externally, and of a decidedly bitter taste. I have preserved the roots, and 
also a quantity of seeds, in order to carry on further experiments, as I see no 
reason why, in a short time, I should not procure a new variety of cultivated 
potato from this stock; but if these should afterwards present pinnate and 
bipinnate leaves, it will be interesting to mark the progress of change from 
the curious lobate leaf it now possesses. 
The arriving at fresh potatoes from this source may do much to settle 
some questions regarding potato disease. It has been recommended to grow 
new varieties of this tuber from the apple or seeds, in order to procure a 
sound stock ; but this in practice has failed, as seedling potatoes have been 
found to be as prone to disease as others. It is, however, possible that this 
may arise from the fact that the apples after all contain the seeds of an 
unsound race; and I shall therefore look with great interest to the result of 
the next few years in the growth and advance of this wild potato, and I 
hope I shall have two races going, one derived from the tubers, and another 
from the seeds. 
Salsafy and Schorzonera are two capital roots, easy of cultivation, and 
which readily store during the winter. They are not, perhaps, so produc- 
tive as carrots and parsnips ; but they offer a good variation to these, both as 
a change of crop and also as food: formerly they were highly esteemed, but, 
like several other vegetables, they are now only found in the gardens of the 
curious. 
Cardoons.—This is a vegetable very little grown in England, and yet it is 
of excellent quality, and not difficult of cultivation. Professor Lindley, in his 
‘Guide to the Orchard and Kitchen Garden,’ p.535, says, ‘“‘ The Cardoon 
(Cynara Cardunculus,) is greatly admired by many, and ought to have a place 
in every gentleman’s garden ; and yet it is curious how few of even gardeners 
have ever seen it.” It progresses well on my plots, and I hope to experiment 
largely upon it in another season. 
It may be well in this place to refer to some experiments which I have 
now been carrying on for nearly ten years in the ennobling of the wild parsnip. 
Of course it was known that our garden esculent was derived from the Pas- 
tinaca sativa of our fields; but the progress of the experiments has been 
marked by some interesting facts relating to malformations of roots known 
as finger-and-toe, and which will be found detailed in the ‘ Journal of the 
Royal Agricultural Society ; and at the same time it was a matter of no small 
interest to myself and pupils to note the great changes that took place as the 
experiments proceeded. The result has been the production of a good-sized 
parsnip of a regular shape, but containing more flavour than is perhaps de- 
sirable* ; but, inasmuch as some people complain of the want of flavour in the 
ordinary cultivated parsnip, time may tone down my specimens to the re- 
quisite degree. I would remark that I sadly want a change of soil for con- 
tinuing the experiments, and I have this year grown a quantity of seed; I 
* During the time that my experiments have been in progress, I have been enabled to 
watch the downward progress of parsnips left from an abandoned garden ; and though these 
have not even yet lost all traces of their civilization, they are essentially wild parsnips. 
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