4 I2 



A New Tuber in France. 



[OCT., 



late potatoes in many districts, notably, in East Prussia, are 

 very backward, and need a long, warm autumn, with favourable 

 showers, to ripen the tubers. No such low figure has been 

 recorded in September during the past eleven years, the nearest 

 approach being in 1896, when 3*1 was given, and in that year 

 the final yield only averaged 4I tons per acre, compared with 

 a ten year average of about 5^ tons. 



A species of tuber of the potato family, not previously culti- 

 vated in Europe, has recently been introduced into France, 

 where its experimental cultivation appears 



A New Tuber ^ Q nave been attended with considerable 

 in France. 



success. The tuber in question, known as 

 Solanum Commersonii, was obtained from Uruguay by M. 

 Heckel, Director of the Colonial Institute at Marseilles, and 

 specimens were distributed by him to various cultivators, one 

 of whom, M. Labergerie, has communicated to the Societe 

 Nationale d'Agriculture de France an interesting account of 

 the experiments carried out by him since 1901. 



The specimens received by M. Labergerie included two dis- 

 tinct types of Solanum Commersonii, differing from one another 

 in a marked degree. One of these, which may be taken to be 

 the original type, produced suckers, and the tubers were deeply 

 buried and distributed in all directions. The second, a violet- 

 skinned variety, produced tubers clustered round the foot of the 

 mother plant, and partly above ground. The tubers, moreover, 

 of the first were found to possess a bitter flavour, while the 

 second had, on the contrary, a sweet taste. The origin of this 

 variety is unknown, but it was suggested to the Society by M. 

 Schribaux that it was not merely a spontaneous variation, but 

 the result of a natural cross between the Solanum Commersonii 

 and the Solanum Tuberosum, or ordinary potato. The cor- 

 rectness of this suggestion cannot be confirmed, as it has not 

 been found possible to produce such a cross artificially. 



With regard to the original type, it is stated that when once 

 established in the soil the plant perpetuates itself by its under- 



