42 
POTATOES FROM SEED. 
very gay in colour, at least compensate for this 
deficiency by the exceedingly graceful manner 
in which they are produced, and by their pro- 
fuseness. It forms an evergreen under-shrub, 
with opposite oblong, lance-shaped, acute, 
sessile (without stalks), shining leaves, and 
long spike-formed racemes, issuing from the 
base of every leaf, from six to eight inches 
long, gracefully pendent, and crowded with 
small pale lilac flowers, fading to white, with 
purple anthers. It looks best when the 
colouring has passed off, as the then white 
flowers contrast better with the green of the 
foliage. It appears to flower in the autumnal 
months ; and requires a green-house. 
The cultivation of these plants is not by 
any means difficult ; they require plenty of 
pot room, and to be placed in a light airy 
situation. A soil composed of the greater 
proportion of sandy loam, mixed with turfy 
peat, or leaf-mould, would be suitable for it. 
The pot should be well drained, as indeed 
should always be done when a plant is placed 
in contact with a considerable mass of earth. 
During all the earlier stages of growth, the 
plant should be continually stopped ; that is, 
the tops of the young shoots should be pinched 
out, when they have extended a few inches, 
in order to maintain a compact and bushy 
habit of growth. V. Lindleyana belongs to 
the natural order Scrophulariaceoe ; and in 
the Linnasan arrangement to Diandria mo- 
nogynia. 
January, in pots of sandy loam and peat, not 
! quite filled; they are not to be covered with 
soil, but gently pressed down on the surface, 
the pots covered over with a piece of glass, 
set in saucers of water, and placed in a heat 
of 70 degrees. In five or six weeks the young 
plants appear, and as soon as they can be 
handled, they are to be potted singly, into small 
or three-inch pots, in the same kinds of soil: 
they are then to be placed in an orchidaceous 
house, and grown there throughout. They 
are to be shifted into a size larger pot, when 
the roots get numerous; and about May, into 
five, six, or eight-inch pots for blooming, ac- 
cording to their strength. They are not to 
be watered overhead, but require abundant 
watering at the roots ; and are benefited by 
clear manure water once or twice a week when 
they get strong. In the earlier stages of 
growth, the young shoots strike readily as 
cuttings, but as far as present experience goes, 
the plants are not to be kept alter flowering. 
DYSOPHYLLA STELLATA. 
This is an exquisitely beautiful little plant, 
forming a small branching tuft, decorated with 
elegant upright spikes of purple-lilac flowers. 
The leaves are small, growing in whorls. It 
has been found difficult of culture. An orchi- 
daceous house, where it can enjoy a warm 
moist atmosphere, seems to suit it. A suc- 
cessful course of practice is to sow seeds in 
POTATOES FROM SEED. 
There is a foolish notion abroad, that 
certain Potatoes have deteriorated in quality, 
and that unless something be done to prevent 
it, the excellent vegetable that has become a 
second staff of life will be lost to us. Those 
who hold this doctrine can know very little 
of practice ; and as they follow it up, by 
enforcing the necessity of raising Potatoes from 
seed, as if they were the original suggestors 
of this precaution, they proclaim still more 
their ignorance of what is going forward. 
Potatoes have been raised from seed annually 
for many years ; hence the numerous excellent 
kinds which are to be had, differing in form, 
and season, and character, but good in their 
several claims. We dispute the assumed fact, 
that any sort of Potato deteriorates in quality, 
except by mismanagement ; but such is the 
disposition of this useful article, that it will 
grow almost any where, and under almost any 
circumstances, and the consequence is, that 
cultivators treat it worse than they do any 
other subject of the farm or garden. Thus a 
man grows because his grandfather did before 
him — the Champion, and the Shaws, year 
after year, from the same seed, on the same 
spot, and subject to the same treatment, until, 
like any other vegetable that grows, it is 
weakened and becomes worse in quality. He 
gets his yield, and it fetches something near his 
price, and that is all he cares for, until he has 
carried on the game too far, and then he dis- 
covers that Potatoes wear out, get worse, and 
will one day be lost, though while he is com- 
plaining, both varieties of the Potato are 
grown in perfection, and are equal in quality 
to the samples had in their best days. The 
