GENUS SOLA'NUM. 61 



parts of Germany, the purpled-flowered potatoes are 

 preferred to the white ; and in Saxony, where they 

 are cried about for sale, the colour of the blossom 

 is always mentioned. 



EDWARD. 

 And these little green balls; are they the seeds ? 



MOTHER. 



They are the seed-vessels, and contain the seeds 

 within them. When the seeds of any one plant are 

 sown, they produce a great many different va- 

 rieties : and on this account the Potatoe is propa- 

 gated by planting the eyes ; which are unde- 

 veloped buds, growing on the Tuber, as the buds 

 do on the stems of other plants. This ensures 

 the production of plants of the same quality. 



Look at the anthers, and you will perceive that 

 they are nearly united at top, in a point, and that 

 there are two little holes in each of them ; this is 

 the principal distinguishing character of the genus 

 Sola'num, of which there are more than three hun- 

 dred species; but only. two of these are natives of 

 England, the Dulcama'ra and Ni'grum. You will, 

 perhaps, be surprised to hear that the woody 

 Nightshade, which grows wild in our hedges, and 

 bears the pretty scarlet berries that I have so often 

 told you were poisonous, belongs to the same genus 

 as the potatoe : it is the Sola'num Dulcama'ra. 



The garden Nightshade, Sola'num ni'grum, is 



