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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
of 8. Commersonii being the original wild type from which the 
cultivated varieties of Potato have sprung. Dr. Lindley read a 
paper on the same subject before this Society in 1848; this was 
published in the ‘‘Journal,” vol. iii., p. 65. The author treats 
more particularly of several varieties of Potato raised in the 
Society’s garden from wild Mexican tubers, communicated by 
Uhde, and expresses the opinion that S. tuberosum grows wild in 
Mexico. He regards 8. verrucosum of Schlechtendahl, collected by 
Galeotti on the Peak of Orizaba ; at an elevation of 10-12,000 feet, 
as a variety of 8. tuberosum , as also 8. stoloniferum. Amongst the 
very numerous species of Solanum inhabiting America, from 
Mexico southwards on the western side of the country to South 
Chili and across the continent to Uruguay, etc., there are several 
which produce tubers, and some of them are very distinct from 
any variety of Potato, whilst other forms which have been 
described as species so closely resemble some of the varieties of 
Potato that experienced botanists and gardeners have regarded 
them as such. It has been objected that the plant found by Euiz 
and Pavon in Peru and Hew Granada was 8. immite , but Duval, 
the author of it, says, “An 8. tuber osi mera varietas ? ” "What 
I have seen under this name was collected in Peru by Matthews, 
who called it 8. tuberosum , and it is Hooker’s variety, multijugum 
of tuberosum. It is a distinct looking form, though not more so 
than many cultivated varieties of the true Potato. A fordi common 
about Yalparaiso, said to have bitter tubers, invariably white 
flowers, and a long, exserted style has been described as a distinct 
species under the name of 8. Maglia. The plant figured by Sabine 
in the “Transactions,” vol. v., p. 11, agrees exactly with 8. 
Maglia. After examining the numerous specimens at Hew of 8. 
tuberosum and its allies and a large number of cultivated varieties 
of the true Potato, I think it possible that more than one wild 
form or species has been concerned in the production of the latter. 
The cultivated varieties exhibit quite as wide a range of variation 
in the lobing and degree of hairiness of the leaves, in the shape 
and size of the calyx-lobes, in the colour and size of the flowers, 
in the relative length of style, and in the size, shape, and colour of 
the berries as the difference between 8. tuberosum (whatever this 
maybe), S. Maglia , and some of the others, and these extreme varie¬ 
ties would be dubbed species if they existed in a wild state. It 
may be that both the cultivated varieties and several of the wild 
forms described as species have descended from one common type, 
