ON THE TOMATO 



supply of water and salts in solution, and the 

 potato leaves set to work as usual developing 

 material for the manufacture of tubers. "When, 

 however, the effort was made to send this material 

 for tuber formation back to the roots, there was 

 an embargo put on such transportation because 

 the tomato roots have no knowledge of the art of 

 tuber making. 



In this dilemma the potato crop, under spell of 

 the compelling instinct of tuber formation, made 

 the only compromise possible by growing aerial 

 tubers at the joints where the leaves appear from 

 buds springing from the point of union with the 

 leaves of the stem. 



What would ordinarily have been leaf-bearing 

 branches were terminated with small potatoes, 

 which, because of exposure to the sunlight, gener- 

 ally took on a greenish tint, those in full sunlight 

 sometimes being thoroughly green, while those 

 that were shaded by leaves were of a lighter color. 



The potato vine growing on a tomato stem and 

 bedecked with aerial potatoes, like some strange 

 form of exotic fruit, was certainly one of the most 

 curious forms of plants ever seen. It is perhaps 

 needless to add that the potato vine produced no 

 fruit tfiat gave any suggestion of the influence of 

 the tomato. The tubers it grew were potatoes and 

 nothing else; their modifications in form and color 



[137] 



