164 GERMINATION 



The Maltese Cross in the sectional plan is very remark- 

 able and is especially interesting as this vegetable comes to 

 us from the East. 



Next in order we will take that wonderful tuber, the 

 Potato. 



Before describing it in electrical detail I wiU quote an 

 account of it which appeared in The Catering World of May, 

 1917. 



" The Potato, being a stem, it is, like the latter, provided 

 with a ring of vascular tissue. All along it, just beneath 

 the skin, is a cylindrical supply of slender pipes. The netting 

 shown in Figure 112 consists of hollow pipes or fibres grouped 

 together. 



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When the plant is growing it is along these tubes that 

 the sap is conveyed to feed the potato, which is filled with 

 food intended primarily to nourish the buds, i.e., the eyes, 

 when they grow into new plants. Air also travels along 

 these tubes." 



As one of our American cousins would say, that descrip- 

 tion leaves me cold ! I should like to be able to follow 

 those tubes in their ramifications and see precisely with 

 what parts of the tuber they connect. Perhaps my own 

 drawing may throw some light upon the subject : 



