White Potato 



215 



run out. New kinds are easily grown from the true seed^ 

 but the seed-balls (Fig. Ill) are not often produced in 

 the highly-bred potatoes^ probably because of insufficient 

 pollen supply. Seeds are taken from the balls or berries 

 and kept in the same way as from tomatoes. These seeds 

 are sown the following spring, and the small tubers pro- 

 duced the first season are planted the second season, 

 when potatoes of full size will be obtained. If the seed 

 is started early in hotbeds or greenhouse, however, and 

 the seedlings transplanted two or three times, full-size 

 tubers may be obtained the same year. Every seedling 

 may be considered a new variety. The results are likely 

 to be much more certain if the seed is of selected parent- 

 age from hand-pollinated flowers. Fig. 112 shows the 

 potato flower. A " sample of certified seed potatoes " 

 is seen in Fig. 113, adapted from J. G. Milward, Bull. 252 

 "Wisconsin Experiment Station. 



The desirable forms of potatoes are the short (round) 

 and the oblong (Figs. 114, 115). The eyes should be shal- 

 low, so that the wastage in paring is reduced to the mini- 

 mum. Fig. 116 shows a ^Miill " of potatoes, in section. 



The Potato Plant 



Solanum. Solanacew. A vast genus, comprising probably 

 1,200 species, on many parts of the globe, particularly in 

 tropical America ; herbs, shrubs, twiners, trees. 



S. tuberosum, Linn. Sp. PL 185. {Lycopersicon tuherosum, 

 Mill. Gard. Diet. No. 7. 1768). Potato. Spreading soft-stemmed 

 usually pubescent perennial, persisting by means of tubers 

 borne on the ends of white underground stems (rhizomes) that 

 arise from the stalk above the seed tuber, with the roots : 

 stem angled, branching, 2 to 2^2 ft. high: leaves dull dark 

 green, rugose, alternate, oblong-ovate in outline, the petiole 



