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VEGETABLE GARDENING 



POTATO (Solanum tuberosum) 



Description. Native of the high mountain regions of 

 South America. Grown as an annual, but truly a perennial 

 through its tubers. Its stems are more or less four-angled. 

 The flowers vary in color from white to purplish. Many 

 kinds do not flower, and most varieties seldom, if ever, 

 produce fruit. The fruit is a roundish or slightly oval berry, 

 of a green color or tinged with violet brown, and averaging 

 about an inch in diameter. The pulp is green and very 

 acrid. The seeds are white, kidney-shaped, and flat. The 



seed is never sown ex- 

 cept in producing new 

 varieties. Seedlings 

 vary greatly and often 

 do not obtain full size 

 until three years old. 

 The tubers are com- 

 monly referred to as 

 "seed, "but they should 

 be regarded as cut- 

 tings or sets; they are 

 only swollen under- 

 ground branches filled 

 with starchy matter. 

 They vary much in 

 size and shape and 

 in color of skin, from 

 white to almost black, including yellow, red, and blue. 

 There are a thousand or more named varieties, but many 

 of them are scarcely distinguishable from other named kinds. 



Origin of the Modern Potato. Sixty years ago potato 

 rot ran over western Europe and the United States to such 



Fig. 109. A hill of white potatoes, showing 

 top, tubers, and roots. 



