The Story-Book of the Fields 



Let us now consider a potato. What do 

 we see on its surface ? Certain depressions 

 or eyes, which are so many shoots ; for these 

 eyes will develop into branches if the potato 

 is placed in favourable conditions. On old 

 potatoes, in the after season, we see them 

 becoming growths, which only need a little 

 sunshine to turn green and develop into stalks. 



This property is made use of in propagating 

 the plant. For this purpose we do not sow 

 seeds, which would not result in a harvest 

 for some years, but tubers, which produce 

 abundantly in the same season. Or, better 

 still, the potato is divided into quarters, when 

 each portion that is buried provides a fresh 

 plant — supposing of course that it contains 

 at least one eye : otherwise it will decay 

 without producing anything. 



Moreover, there are very small scales on the 

 eyes, which are leaves adapted to an under- 

 ground existence — leaves in the same degree 

 as the tough scales of an ordinary shoot. 

 The potato then is a branch, since it possesses 

 leaves and shoots. By earthing up the plant, 

 that is by heaping up the earth about it, the 

 young branches thus buried are converted 

 into potatoes ; and in dark and rainy seasons 

 we occasionally see some of the ordinary 



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