10 



Colour and other Characters in the Potato 



proved of value was a white kidney potato known as " Record." It 

 was brought out by Messrs King, of Coggeshall, but it has entirely 

 gone out of cultivation as far as could be ascertained, not only in 

 England generally, but in my garden also, and my notes of its characters 

 are unfortunately not very full. 



I give here a list of the domestic varieties I have used. 



In self and cross fertilization. 

 A. Flourball (Sutton). 

 Record (King). 

 Congo. 



Reading Russet. 

 Red Fir Apple. 

 Queen of the Valley. 

 Bohemian Pearl. 

 Sole's Kidney. 

 Early Regent. 

 Prof. Maerker. 

 S. etuberostim. 



B. 



For observations on pollen. 



Varieties in list A. 

 Ringleader. 

 Supreme. 

 Dutch Cornwall. 

 Peckover. 

 The Dean. 

 Purple Eyes. 

 Up-to-Date. 

 Duke of York. 



S. commersonii ^ 

 S. tuberosum 

 S. verrucosum 

 S. maglia 



- species. 



Several other varieties were used in class A without success. 



Sterility of Anthers. Con tabescence. 



Darwin (3), in considering the origin of sterility, describes a con- 

 dition not uncommonly found amongst plants of various families in 

 which the anthers are more or less twisted up or aborted and contain 

 no pollen. Darwin called this condition "contabescence," and described 

 how it might be propagated by layers, cuttings, etc., and even by seed. 



Gaertner first observed the condition and described a similar change 

 affecting the female organ (6), 



Bateson described in the Sweet Pea a similar phenomenon and found 

 it recessive to fertile anthers (i). 



The potato " Record," which possesses no pollen in its anthers, was 

 crossed by Sutton's " Flourball," which possesses abundant pollen : 20^ 

 of the 32 F^ plants which bore flowers not one of which contained any 



1 In 1910 26 of the i^^ plants flowered and they were all sterile. 



