6 BULLETIN 195; U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the Garnet Chili, thus making it a second-generation seedhng of the 

 Kough Purple Chili. 



In view of the testimony already presented regarding the parentage 

 of a few of our better known varieties of potatoes, there seems to 

 be every justification for claiming that Goodrich's efforts were 

 epoch making. 



TECHNIQUE OF POTATO BREEDING. 



The floral organs of the potato are of such simple structure as to 

 render the task of manipulating the flowers a comparatively easy 

 one. The two organs immediately concerned in plant breeding are 

 the pistil and the stamens. The potato plant bears perfect flowers; 

 that is, each flower when normally developed has both pistil and sta- 

 mens, or female and male organs of reproduction. 



STSUCTURE OF THE PISTIL. 



Each flower bears but one pistil. The style of the pistil varies 

 from 6 to 9 lines in length and from one-third to two-thirds of a line 

 in thickness. GeneraUy speaking, the shorter the style, the more 

 fleshy it is. Some styles are greatly curved, while others are only 

 slightly so, and a few are perfectly straight. The 2-lobed stigma 

 also varies very greatly in size. Some stigmas are very slightly 

 enlarged and somewhat cup shaped, while others are considerably 

 enlarged, having well-rounded lobes covered with short papillse. 



STRUCTURE OF THE STAMENS. 



The potato flower normally possesses five stamens, though occasion- 

 aUy four or six have been noted. The stamens have short, thick 

 filaments with large, fleshy, erect anthers which stand close together 

 around the style, like a cone in the center of the flower OPl- 1, n^- 1,-4). 

 The placenta, which divides the anther longitudinaUy into two equal 

 parts, is rather thick and fleshy. The halves or lobes of the anthers 

 have smaU terminal pore openings, through which the ripe pollen 

 grams normally escape. In many varieties, the anthers are so poorly 

 developed that the terminal pores do not open, ol though they are 

 not so undeveloped as to be devoid of pollen. In such cases the 

 membranous outer covering of each lobe of the anthers may be slit 

 open and the pollen grains scraped off into a watch glass by means of 

 a scalpel, forceps, or needle. 



The color of the stamens varies greatly with different varieties. 

 Some are a pale lemon yellow, while others are a bright orange 

 yellow, with all the intergradations of color between these two. Only 

 one instance has come to the writer's attention in which the color 

 of the stamens did not answer to the above description, and that was 

 in the case of a wild Mexican species, Solanum cardiophyllum lanceo- 

 latum (Berth.) Bitter, where the anthers were chocolate brown with a 



