170 THE POTATO TEECENTENAEY. 



America had cultivated the plant from time immemorial, 

 and Mr. Carruthers's suggestion is, perhaps, the most likely 

 solution of the difEculty, notwithstanding that it seems 

 to conflict with, an express statement of Harriot, that the 

 " openank " was not a cultivated but a wild plant. 



To appreciate aright the evidence on this point, it is 

 necessary to inquire more particularly into the natural 

 habitat of the potato and its allies. For this purpose I 

 avail myself of a valuable article by Mr. J. Q. Baker, of 

 Kcw, published in the Journal of the Linnoan Society 

 (Botany, vol. xx., ISTo. 131). 



The genus Solanum, to which the potato belongs, is one of 

 the largest known to botanists. No less than about nine 

 hundred species have been described, and it is estimated by 

 Bentham and Hooker that some seven hundred of those are 

 really distinct. Fortunately, however, for the inquiry in 

 hand, only a very small proportion of these seven hundred 

 species belong to the tuber-bearing group. About twenty 

 tuber-bearing Solanums have been named, but Mr. Baker, in 

 the article referred to (which was published in 1884), re- 

 duces those to six. These are the Solanum tuhernsum, (to 

 which species belong, probably, all our cultivated varieties), 

 the 8. Maglia, the 8. Gommorsoni, the 8. ca/rdiophyllum, the 

 8. Jamesii, and the 8. oxycarpum. By the report of the 

 Potato Conference, I see that Mr. Baker now considers five 

 kinds only to bo specifically distinct, having merged the 

 Maglia with the tuberosum. This is of interest, because the 

 8, Maglia, the potato which Darwin found in the Chonos 

 Archipelago, far south on the coast of Chili (lat. about 45°), 

 is the kind which has lately been experimented upon by 

 Messrs. Sutton, of Reading, at the instance of Earl Cathcart, 

 with a view to establish, by cross-breeding, a kind which 

 should bo better adapted to the English, and, more es- 



