1911-1912.] On the Potato. 413 



resident fauna or regular visitors — the Puffins, Guillemots, and 

 Kazor-bills, for example, which nest in inaccessible cliffs, or 

 the Osprey and others of the Eagle tribe, which nest in island 

 fastnesses or on mountain crags. If these come to us, as they 

 sometimes do, it is as refugees from the storm, or as individual 

 vagrants which have been carried beyond the limits of their 

 home area. 



\\\.—0N THE POTATO, 

 By Mr WM. WILSON. 



{Communicated Dec. SO, 1911.) 



Much has been written, and more said, about the potato and 

 other orders of economic plants. Since 1885 onwards a good 

 deal has passed through my hands regarding grasses, our 

 greatest food order and their varieties, both as pasture and as 

 cereals. In their distribution certain of these plants show 

 great versatility by forming peculiar roots, bulbs, and so forth, 

 to enable them to mature properly over a wide stretch of 

 climatic conditions. 



I have been much interested also in the great order of 

 Leguminous plants, whose outstanding feature for develop- 

 ment purposes is the peculiar nodules attached to the roots of 

 the plants. Somewhere about the beginning of the nineties 

 of the last century, a Continental authority brought out an 

 improved vetch, or pea plant, and by developing these nodules 

 he expected to have large and valuable crops over an unlimited 

 area, and in much diversity of soil. A leading seed and 

 nursery firm asked me to try it, and I planted it in a variety 

 of situations. The result in every case was a failure. It 

 dawned upon me that these nodules were most effective in 

 assisting plants to develop within suitable areas ; and subse- 

 quent inquiry showed that when these plants had difficulty in 

 growing they formed wiry roots and fewer nodules. Before 

 drawing public attention to the failure of my experiment, I 

 consulted my friend, the late Sir J. B. Lawes, who gave a 



