053 



effect upon it as is frequently observed in fresh-water aquatics, the 

 submersed leaves of which become more or less finely divided in pro- 

 portion to the greater or less rapidity of the stream. It is worthy of 

 remark, that the broad state, which is found in comparatively still 

 water, is wholly free from zoophytes, while the narrow is entirely 

 coated with them." — Proceedings of the Linnean Society, 1846, p. 283. 



TJie Potato Mania. By the Editor. 



We never recollect a subject that drew forth such a cloud of authors 

 as the failure of the potato crop : not only every botanist, but every 

 agriculturalist, every gardener, every political economist has rushed in a 

 kind of poetic frenzy to his inkstand, and hastened to the printing office 

 with the results. Long unmeaning papers, that on any other subject 

 would not have been tolerated for a moment, have on this fashionable 

 topic been read with patience and even delight, and we verily believe 

 that nothing could be written so absurd, as not to command attention and 

 respect. The poor starving Irishman, with 7d. for his day's wages, 

 has been seriously recommended to erect buildings and apparatus for 

 slicing, drying and grinding into flour, the produce of his rood of 

 potatoes ; and this, bitter and cruel as the jest may seem to the reflect- 

 ing mind, has been sent forth with authority. In fact nothing has been 

 deemed too outrageous to recommend; and those who would scarcely 

 know a potato from a turnip, in the field or storehouse, have taken a 

 distinguished lead in suggesting alterations in the mode of cultivation 

 and storing. 



There can be no doubt that this unparalleled mania for writing on 

 the subject, has produced a greatly exaggerated idea of the calamity. 

 The writer of these observations is a householder, and has many 

 mouths to feed; potatoes are required in some abundance ; his own 

 eating takes place at a variety of places, but no day passes without a 

 demand for potatoes, nor without the demand being abundantly sup- 

 plied. Now whether as regards the cost as an item of housekeeping, or 

 the quantity supplied wherever he may happen to dine, or the quality of 

 the potatoes set before him, he has never in any instance perceived indi- 

 cations of scarcity or inferiority, and the fact of the existence of scarcity 

 or inferiority is unknown to him, except through the medium of the 

 printing-press : and yet there is no doubt that, at the present moment, 

 the price of the potato is driven up to the highest pitch to which 

 speculation, founded on the newspaper reports, can possibly force it. 

 Vol. II. 4 m 



