56 JOURNAL OF THE KOYAL HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



NOTE ON " SOLANUM ETUBEROSUM." 

 By The Editor. 



In 1835 Dr. John Lindley, F.R.S., F.R.H.S., figured and described in the 

 " Botanical Register," t. 1712, under the name of Solatium etuberosum, a 

 species of Solarium which had been introduced from Chile by the Royal 

 Horticultural Society some years before. He describes the plant as a 

 hardy perennial and states that "it bears rich clusters of deep purple 

 blossoms, with a golden yellow centre, from July to October, and is very 

 easily multiplied by dividing its stout rooting underground stems." 



" Although extremely similar to the Potatoe (sic) in appearance, yet 

 its larger and more compact flowers and its want of power of producing 

 tubers renders it a proper plant for the flower garden." 



" There can be no doubt that this is a species essentially distinct from 

 the Potatoe, and yet it is impossible to point out any character by which 

 it is to be positively distinguished, except the want of tubers and the 

 smoothness of the calyx and flower stalks ; these latter have a shining 

 and nearly downless surface, instead of the rough dull appearance which 

 we meet in those parts in the common Potatoe." 



Dr. Lindley also emphasizes the absence of tubers and the smoothness 

 of the calyx in a note to his technical diagnosis : " Facies omnino S. 

 tuberosi, sed tubera nulla profert ; flores majores sunt, brevius pedunculati, 

 calyxque glaber est et lucidus, nec pilis hispidus. Species certo certius 

 distinctissima, etsi notis levibus cognoscenda." 



Mr. Paton considers that the plant which he has called S. etuberosum 

 in his " Notes " (p. 53) is possibly a hybrid, since when it is self -fertilized 

 its seedlings show marked variability. 



Mr. A. Sutton, F.L.S., V.M.H., has included in his important studies 

 of various wild forms and species of tuber-bearing Solanums * a plant 

 under the same name, which is apparently identical with the one Mr. 

 Paton has employed. He also finds that, when self-fertilized, the seed- 

 lings of this plant vary to the same extraordinary degree, as is seen in the 

 seedlings of the potato of commerce. This trait in the character of the 

 plant, in which it differs from all the other wild forms cultivated by 

 Mr. Sutton, has led him to believe that this " may probably be the parent 

 form of the cultivated potato of to-day." 



Mr. Sutton says, " The examples of Solarium etuberosum which I 

 possess came originally from the Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, in March 

 1887, through Mr. Lindsay, and again from the same stock in 1897 from 

 Dr. Bayley Balfour. They produced at first small tubers about the size 

 of walnuts, and the calyces are hispid ; in other respects the plants are 

 similar to the type specimen described by Lindley." t 



The original source of the plant in the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens 



* See Joitrn. R.H.S. vol. xxxiii. pp. xxviii. and xxxvi. and vol. xxxiv. p. xxviii. ; 

 also Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. xxxviii. p. 44G. 

 t Jonrn. Linn. Soc. xxxviii. p. 449. 



