FOOD AND FLAVOR 211 



then, and I would gladly now pay, at the rate 

 of $1,000 an ounce for horse-radish seed. But 

 there is not the remotest probability that anyone 

 will ever legitimately claim the prize. If the 

 seed should ever be found, it will probably be 

 dark-colored, and about the size of a common 

 black mustard seed. 



I have received nearly or quite a thousand 

 letters informing me that the parties writing 

 could supply me with all the horse-radish seed I 

 could wish, inasmuch as their plants were bloom- 

 ing abundantly, and I subsequently received 

 large quantities of dried horse-radish buds, as 

 well as great quantities of the seeds of weeds of 

 various sorts, and have even received what were 

 alleged to be horse-radish seeds from market 

 gardeners. But the plants that grew from these 

 seeds bore no resemblance to the horse-radish. 



The interesting features of this loss of the 

 power of seed production by plants that have for 

 long periods been propagated by the root OK 

 from cuttings or tubers including plants of! 

 such diverse races as the banana, the pineapple, 

 the sugar cane, and the potato, and nearly all 

 plants generally cultivated in greenhouses, along 

 with the horse-radish have elsewhere been 

 referred to. I may add that the loss of power 

 to produce seeds in the case of the potato is not 



