4i6 Notes on a Visit to Egypt. [Sess. 



but France lagged long in discovering its economic properties. 

 They were declared worthy only to be eaten by cattle and the 

 most wretched of human beings. Parmentier, a zealous 

 French chemist, thought the best plan was to make it popular, 

 and he presented Louis XVI. with a nosegay made of the 

 flowers. His courtiers hastened to cultivate it, and it soon 

 came into general use. Thus we see the difficulties which 

 met its dispersion, but these have been overcome and the 

 plant has spread into every country. The potato is an annual 

 plant. It has two ways of reproducing itself. It has a fruit 

 containing a considerable number of seeds, but these form 

 unsatisfactory members for reproduction. Experiments have 

 shown that you get small tubers the first season — the plant 

 generally requiring two years to attain normal size. This 

 method, however, gives the means of obtaining new varieties. 

 The other method of reproduction is by buds situated in the 

 tubers. The tuber, beyond being the home, as it were, of the 

 new plant, has no claim as a reproducer. Its value consists 

 in nourishing the young plant and in being the part which is 

 of use to man and beasts for food. 



[Mr Wilson goes on, in the course of his paper, to discuss 

 various questions connected with potato-growing — the effect 

 of climate, rain, and frost, the different kinds of soil, early 

 and late varieties of the tuber, &c.] 



ISf.— NOTES ON A VISIT TO EGYPT. 

 By Mr EUPERT SMITH. 



{The complete 'paper was read Jan. 24j 1912.) 



I HAVE been asked to write a few notes anent the paper on 

 my visit to Egypt which I read before the Society on Jan. 

 24, 1912. 



I now do so, and include a few of the photographs 

 which I took. 



