Culture and Preservation of Potatoes. 211 



of the potato ; and in the Transactions of the Highland Society, bound up in 

 the same number, there are a paper on their preservation for domestic use, 

 and a digest of both papers ; also in the number for this present month there 

 is a criticism on these by Mr. Towers, author of the Domestic Gardener's 

 Manual; and, as I think a httle might be added to all these, if you think the 

 following remarks suitable for your valuable periodical, they may help^ to 

 throw a little additional light on a subject which will be allowed by all to be 

 of vast importance. Mr. Aitken in his essay attaches great importance to the 

 i-aising of new varieties from seed, the want of attention to which he describes 

 as producing a taint in the potato ; Mr. Towers, in his criticism on this point, 

 seems to think there is no foundation for this opinion, and founds his refu- 

 tation principally on the new theory, lately propounded by Mr. Main, that 

 every seed contains within itself all the parts capable of being developed in the 

 future plant ; and that all the buds and branches to be developed in the future 

 tree will be found contained in embryo in the seed from which it sprang. 

 But this theory itself has yet to stand the test of experience. It will not be 

 easy to demonstrate its fallacy from microscopical observation ; but neither 

 can we demonstrate its truth by the same means, though, as far as observation 

 will guide us, it is rather in favour of its truth. If it is true, however, there 

 will be a normal quantity of parts, as, for instance, of buds : and so far Mr. 

 Anthony Tod Thomson seems to favour this theory ; for, in his Elements of 

 Botany, he says that no more buds will at any time be developed on a plant, 

 than this normal number ; that, as the tree continues to grow, every suc- 

 ceeding year's growth leads from a few of the terminal buds of the previous 

 one-year's shoot, and the others become latent or concealed below the bark; 

 that, as the stem swells in bulk, the buds continue to follow the bark outwards 

 by the medullary rays of the wood ; and that, if the stem is cut over, no other 

 buds will push but these, which, if rubbed off once, will spring again and no 

 oftener. I have, however, often observed, in trees cut over, a far greater than 

 this normal quantity of buds to spring ; and, in particular, I recollect of having 

 made the observation on the stump of a ti-ee which had been cut down. at 

 Monkwood Grove : if my recollection serves nie right, it was a sycamore ; and, 

 round the whole edge of the cut, the buds were clustered in many thousands. 

 I pointed it out to Mr, Smith at the time, and we both remarked on the ne- 

 cessity of practice to the correction of theory. About two years ago, also, we 

 had one of our dahlia roots, one of the duplicates we were springing on a 

 little hot dung, on the crown of which, contrary to the usual number of buds, 

 the top, which was raised into a conical shape, was crowded with hundreds of 

 buds upon buds like bees in a hive. What shall we make, also, of the clusters of 

 young shoots found hke birds' nests on the tops of birch trees, &c. ? Are these 

 all normal? and would they not be much better explained by the power of 

 that vital energy so every where present and so little known, which, as in the 

 animal economy it is found to possess the power of forming bone and muscle 

 and all the animal tissues from the same blood, sometimes even depositing 

 bone in the vital organ of the heart, so, in like manner, in the vegetable 

 economy, is found, stimulated by the accumulated deposits from the leaves 

 in a favourable autumn, converting the leaf-bud into the rudiments of flower 

 and fruit ; and, as in the instances above quoted, forming innumerable buds, 

 totally independent of any former normal numbers. Mr. Towers extends this 

 theory so far, as to reckon seeds no more important a part of the series of 

 individual species, than the tubers of the rhizomata of tuberous roots like the 

 potato, or than the cuttings or grafts of other plants ; hut we see this series 

 broke in upon in innumerable instances, by the hybrids raised between species, 

 which would not take place were the whole series of individuals included in 

 their first origin. 



Mr. Knight, to whose authority Mr. Towers seems to pay great deference, 

 was of a contrary opinion. It was a favourite theory of that gentleman's, that 

 the Golden Pippin and other old sorts of apples, though continued by grafting 

 on healthy young stocks, would lose their vigour as the original tree decayed ; 



