xxxvi.] POTATO DISEASE, II. PASSIVE STATE. 317 



oughly tested as regards their economic value, both as 

 distinct types and when hybridised with the innumerable 

 forms of S. tuberosum, L. 



Mr. Charles Darwin described Solanum Maglia, Sch., 

 in the 1835 octavo edition of the Voyage of the Beagle, p. 

 288. He there writes: "Chonos Archipelago. The 

 wild potato grows on the islands in great abundance on 

 the sandy, shelly soil near the sea-beach. The tallest 

 plant was 4 feet in height. The tubers were generally 

 small, but I found one of an oval shape 2 inches in dia- 

 meter. They resembled in every respect and had the 

 same smell as English potatoes ; but when boiled they 

 shrunk much and were watery and insipid, without any 

 bitter taste. They are undoubtedly here indigenous. 

 They grow as far south, according to Mr. Low, as latitude 

 50, and are called Aquinas by the wild Indians of that 

 part." We give an illustration, natural size, of the 

 flowers, foliage, and tubers of Darwin's potato, Solanum 

 Maglia, Sch., in Fig. 138 (frontispiece). Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, in writing of this species in the Botanical Maga- 

 zine for May 1884, says the tubers were first sent by Mr. 

 Alexander Caldcleugh from Chili to the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society in 1822. Mr. Caldcleugh's tubers were 

 cultivated in manured soil at the Royal Horticultural 

 Gardens, where two plants yielded about 600 tubers of 

 about the size of a pigeon's egg and under, which had, 

 when boiled, the flavour of a common potato. Tubers of 

 the same species were given to Kew in 1862 by Dr. 

 Sclater, F.R.S., these were grown in the sandy soil of 

 the pleasure-grounds without manure. Experiments are 

 now being carried out under the auspices of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society to improve the qualities of the 

 potato, especially in its power of resisting attacks of the 

 potato disease, by crossing S. tuberosum, L., with its allies, 

 and amongst them with S. Maglia, Sch. Sir Joseph 

 Hooker says that 8. Maglia, Sch., flowers freely every 

 autumn at Kew, and yields watery, scarcely edible potatoes, 



