58 On raising new Varieties of the Potatoe. 



only be obtained by accident from seeds of late kinds, one 

 is not very frequently produced : but by the method I have 

 to communicate, seeds are readily obtained from the earliest 

 and best varieties : and the seeds of these, in successive gene- 

 rations, may, not improbably, ultimately afford much earlier 

 and better varieties, than have yet existed. 



I suspected the cause of the constant failure of the early 

 Potatoe to produce seeds, to be the preternaturally early 

 formation of the tuberous root ; which draws off, for its sup- 

 port, that portion of the sap, which, in other plants of the 

 same species, affords nutriment to the blossoms and seeds : 

 and experiment soon satisfied me that my conjectures were 

 perfectly well founded. 



I took several methods of placing the plants to grow, in 

 such a situation, as enabled me readily to prevent the for- 

 mation of tuberous roots ; but the following appearing the 

 best, it is unnecessary to trouble the Society with an account 

 of any other. 



Having fixed strong stakes in the ground, I raised the 

 mould in a heap round their bases, and in contact with 

 them : on their south sides I planted the Potatoes from 

 which I wished to obtain seeds. When the young plants 

 were about four inches high, they were secured to the 

 stakes with shreds and nails, and the mould was then washed 

 away, by a strong current of water, from the bases of their 

 stems, so that the fibrous roots only, of the plants, entered 

 uito the soil. The fibrous roots of the Potatoe are perfectly 

 distinct organs from the runners, which give existence, and 

 subsequently convey nutriment, to the tuberous roots ; and 

 as the runners spring from the stems only of the plants, 



