THE INDIAN CRESS OR NASTURTIUM FAMILY. 549 



also obtained very variable intermediate varieties by grafting 

 the stems (haulm) of two distinct varieties together. Those 

 between black and white, as red varieties, were the most dis- 

 tinct, some of the tubers obtained by grafting the white and 

 red varieties being half red and half white on the same tuber. 



Solatium capsicastrum hybridum is a free-growing, berry-bear- 

 ing hybrid obtained by Mr M'Intosh. It is the result of cross- 

 ing S. capsicastrum with the more erect-growing S. pseudo-cap- 

 sicum (see ' Proc. R. H. S.,' vol. iv.) 



Mr Maule, of Bristol, succeeded in grafting branches of 

 Solatium nigrum and S. dulcamara, well-known garden weeds, 

 on to the stems of the Potato, his object being to " infuse a 

 hardier constitution into the Potato, and so enable it to resist 

 disease." S. nigrum and S. dulcamara both resist the Potato- 

 disease ; but they are poisonous plants, and we see but little 

 prospect of this experiment leading to any practical and useful 

 end. Mr Maule's experiment was brought into notice before 

 the Scientific Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 Nov. 10, 1875; an d> curiously enough, in the 'Gardeners' 

 Journal,' 1847, p. 85, is an account (derived from Transatlantic 

 sources) of grafting the Tomato on the stem of the Potato, 

 which is' said to be successful, both Tomatoes and Potatoes 

 having resulted from the union. Mr A. Dean, of Bedfont, 

 exhibited a bushy plant of a Potato in 1876 which had been 

 grafted on a Tomato stock ; and the Potato haulm being thus 

 elevated above the earth, it produced tubers abundantly in the 

 axils of its leaves. 



THE INDIAN CRESS OR NASTURTIUM FAMILY ( 



A small order of trailing annual, herbaceous, or perennial 

 plants, nearly all being natives of the temperate regions of 

 North and South America. Among the best-known species 

 are the following : T. majus (Common Nasturtium), a Peru- 

 vian annual, long cultivated in our gardens (see 'Bot. Mag.,' 

 t. 23), T. tuber osum, T. speciosum, T. tricolorum, T. azureum, 

 T. pentaphyllum, and T. perigrinum (Canary Creeper). The 

 properties of the order are antiscorbutic, and greatly resemble 

 those of many Crucifers; and, curiously enough, M. de Candolle 

 points out the fact that the caterpillar of the cabbage white 

 butterfly feeds exclusively on Crucifers and Tropczolum. The 

 anthers of Tropceolum are mounted on long and short fila- 

 ments, and discharge their pollen in succession, each bend- 

 ing in towards the style in its turn, as has been observed 



