SOME INTERESTING FAILURES 



not unworthy to be introduced as garden orna- 

 ments. But they offered no advantage over 

 numerous flowers already in existence, and as 

 the tuber proved worthless, these experiments 

 also were discontinued. 



But by far the most interesting experiments 

 that I have made with the wild potatoes were 

 made by combining the form known as the Dar- 

 win potato {Solanum maglia), a yellow fleshy 

 tuber with big seed balls, with the common 

 potato, and with various other tuberous Solanums. 

 Thus I produced a plant which yielded balls of 

 fruit at least three or four times as large as those 

 ever produced by the ordinary potato. 



In one case, the fruit of this hybrid proved to 

 have an excellent flavor, in some respects superior 

 in quality to the tomato. It was white when ripe, 

 and had also a highly pleasing aroma. The flesh 

 of this fruit resembled that of a firm tomato. To 

 the taste it suggested a delightful commingling 

 of acids and sugars. 



As the fruit grew on a hybrid potato vine, and 

 in itself had much the appearance of a tomato, it 

 was christened the "Pomato." 



The name itself was appropriate enough, but 

 was unfortunate in that it led to the unauthor- 

 ized assumption that the fruit was really a cross 

 between the tomato and the potato. In point of 



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