THE INHERITANCE OF COLOUR AND OTHER 

 CHARACTERS IN THE POTATO. 



By REDCLIFFE N. SALAMAN, M.D. 



Introduction. 



The experiments here described were begun in the spring of 1906 

 and are still being continued ; the work has been carried on in my 

 garden at Barley in Hertfordshire. Although the subject material of this 

 research was my own choice, at the time it was determined on I was 

 quite ignorant of the very special advantages as well as disadvantages 

 which the Potato offers for the Mendelian student. To Professor 

 Bateson and Professor Punnett I owe a debt of gratitude for the 

 encouragement they have always given me and the time they have so 

 kindly devoted to examining and criticising my work. 



The potato plant as grown domestically in England is a perennial, 

 that is to say, it is raised from tubers vegetatively year by year. Most 

 of our varieties bear flowers, but only a very small proportion set seed ; 

 this peculiarity will be considered more fully later, and has already 

 been dealt with in detail (9) ^ 



The potato flower bears five anthers (sometimes six or seven) 

 arranged in a cone through whose apex projects the stigma. The 

 anthers dehisce at their distal extremities, the pollen, when there is 

 any, falling on to the knob-shaped stigma which projects but a short 

 distance beyond the cone's apex. 



When cross fertilizations are made, the flower which is to act as 

 the female parent is emasculated before the bud is open while both 

 anthers and stigma are still unripe. 



The flowers are borne as a cyme, on axial stalks, each bloom having 

 a short stem about an inch long, and at a distance of half an inch 



^ The nambera in brackets refer to the Bibliography. 



