130 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Apr. 



as the parts of fructification in potatoes are sufficiently large, 

 the greater would be the probability of success. 



Early potatoes from a defect in their formation, are not so 

 capable of being thus multiplied into varieties. An experiment 

 of Mr. Knight's, given in the Horticultural Society's Transac- 

 tions, is for its ingenuity worth recording, by which he induced 

 a state of flowering in potatoes of this sort. " I suspected 

 the cause of the constant failure of the early potato to produce 

 seeds, to be the preternatural early formation of the tuberous 

 root, which draws off for its support that portion of the sap, 

 which, in other plants of the same species, affords nutriment to 

 the blossoms and seeds, and the 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 formation of tuberous roots, 

 but the following appearing the best, it is unnecessary to trou- 

 ble the society with any other. Having fixed strong stakes in 

 the ground, 1 raised the mould in a heap round the bases of 

 them, and in contact with the stakes : on the 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 en- 

 tered into the soil. The fibrous roots of this plant 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, which are 

 in the mode of culture I have described, placed wholly out of 

 the soil, the formation of tuberous roots is easily prevented ; 

 and whenever this is done, numerous blossoms will soon appear, 

 and almost every blossom will afford fruit and seeds." 



From these facts, Mr. Knight considered it sufficiently 

 proved, that the same sap gives existence alike to the tuber 

 and the blossom and seeds, and that whenever a plant of the 

 potato affords either seeds or blossoms, a diminution of the 

 crop, or an increased expenditure of the riches of the soil, 

 must necessarily take place. The practice of taking off the 

 blossoms of those sorts which produce them, is in accordance 



