ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT l8l 



plants may be so changed by cultivation that they 

 are scarcely recognizable as relatives of their wild 

 parents, even. 



The family to which the potato belongs is 

 called Solanaceae. In it are seventy genera, and 

 these include fifteen hundred species. The genus 

 Solanum covers the potatoes, the egg plants, the 

 nightshades, and the bittersweet. The genus 

 Capsicum includes the red peppers. Lycopersi- 

 cum is the tomato genus. Nicotiana is tobacco. 

 Datura is the Jamestown weed — or "Jimson 

 weed." A genus includes petunias. Another, the 

 ground cherries. 



All these plants are alike in having alternate 

 leaves, regular, five-parted flowers, with a single 

 pistil, two-celled, maturing into a capsule or a 

 berry, with numerous seeds. 



The potato plant grows to maturity in one sea- 

 son and produces clusters of pale purplish or white, 

 wheel-shaped flowers, followed by soft, green ber- 

 ries filled with very bitter pulp, that surrounds 

 the little seeds. 



Underground, the potato has a good supply of 

 fibrous roots. Certain strong branches of the roots 

 end in fleshy tubers. These have eyes, or dimples, 

 with a bud, or a cluster of buds, in each. Later 

 these buds prolong themselves into leafy stems. 



