FOOD AND FLAVOR 211 



then, and I would gladly now pay, at the rate 

 of $1,000 an ounce for horse-radish seed. But 

 there is not the remotest probability that anyone 

 will ever legitimately claim the prize. If the 

 seed should ever be found, it will probably be 

 dark-colored, and about the size of a common 

 black mustard seed. 



I have received nearly or quite a thousand 

 letters informing me that the parties writing 

 could supply me with all the horse-radish seed I 

 could wish, inasmuch as their plants were bloom- 

 ing abundantly, and I subsequently received 

 large quantities of dried horse-radish buds, as 

 well as great quantities of the seeds of weeds of 

 various sorts, and have even received what were 

 alleged to be horse-radish seeds from market 

 gardeners. But the plants that grew from these 

 seeds bore no resemblance to the horse-radish. 



The interesting features of this loss of the 

 power of seed production by plants that have for 

 long periods been propagated by the root or 

 from cuttings or tubers — including plants of 

 such diverse races as the banana, the pineapple, 

 the sugar cane, and the potato, and nearly all 

 plants generally cultivated in greenhouses, along 

 with the horse-radish — have elsewhere been 

 referred to. I may add that the loss of power 

 to produce seeds in the case of the potato is not 



