206 Conard—Fasciation in 
and the same has been reported to me from Ohio, Kansas, 
North Carolina 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 1897 by my preceptor, Professor J. M. Macfarlane, 
though observed by him in New Jersey in 1891. 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, Crepfis, 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 aware 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 observations, 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 
