January 29, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
87 
did not on any occasion attempt to breed from it. My stock of Potatoes 
for use in crossing consisted of nearly 1000 intercrossed seedlings of my 
own, obtained from the best known and popular market sorts of the 
ultivated Potato, the majority of them having been produced with a view 
to obtain good hardy and disease-resisting new varieties. 
These were on trial with most of the best new and old sorts in 
commerce. I had also two years previously planted in the open ground 
a strong plant of the hardy indigenous Solanum Dulcamara, for the 
purpose of intercrossing with the cultivated Potato, and I now determined 
also to use the species received from Kew and Brest with a like object; 
but it seemed to me the more desirable to secure, if possible, not only 
crosses, with the tuber-bearing Solanums, but also with a non-tuber- 
producing species having a woody stem, tough foliage, and of a hardy 
constitution, and these qualities appeared to be combined in S. dulcamara 
to a greater degree than in any other species known to me. And although 
I was reminded I should be dealing with a reputed poisonous plant of 
perennial character, and a non-tuber-bearer differing much in habit and 
foliage from those of the Potato, and that in attempting to breed between 
two such apparently widely varying species I should be treading on some¬ 
what uncertain ground, I recognised the facts that the Potato also is 
poisonous in stem, leaf, and fruit, a 3 well as practicady perennial. I 
surmised also the probability that tuber-bearing was an after-acquired 
deviation or adaptation of the genus, and in the absence of any positive 
evidence of the refusal of a tuberous to cross with a non-tuberous species, 
I have been induced to try to mingle the blood of the English Woody 
Nightshade or Bitter-sweet with that of the edible Potato. As one of my 
subjects for operation I proposed an early-ripening Potato, the Hammer¬ 
smith Kidney, which only rarely fruits or blossoms, and in order to get a 
few plants of this to flower in the open ground I resorted to the plan of 
removing from time to time all accessible tubers as they formed ; and as a 
consequence I was, to my gratification, rewarded with blossoms, the 
gratification being increased in consequence of the failure of a previous 
attempt made about twenty-five years ago, and before I had seen the late 
Mr. T. A. Knight’s paper on the subject, when I unsuccessfully tried the 
experiment with the old Ashleaf Kidney planted in pots. I should 
premise that none of the flowers operated upon in the course of my 
experiments were emasculated, as in the Solanex the anthers form an 
important part of the flower and are too firmly attached to the filaments 
to be removed without much injury to the organs of fructification, and 
causing the blossom to drop off prematurely. Pollen from two, three, or 
more flowers was applied to the seed-bearing plants early in the forenoon, 
prior to the bursting of the anthers of the flower operated upon, and the 
application repeated the same afternoon or the following morning, this 
being the plan I have usually followed in crossing the Potato and some 
other plants from which it is frequently difficult to obtain the pollen from 
any single flower. As emasculation was not resorted to, it would have 
been useless to protect the flowers from natural self or cross-fertilisation, 
and, indeed, I have little faith in the practice unless it can be carried 
out with the greatest nicety, and I follow it only in most exceptional 
cases. 
I commenced operations on the 12th of June by using the pollen of 
the earliest Potato I had then in flower upon S. Dulcamara ; and between 
that date and the 1st July I made sixteen attempts with various Potatoes 
in the same direction, and in three cases success would appear to have 
followed, as I have obtained three ripe berries fairly filled with seeds. 
I also endeavoured, between the 18th June and 1st July, to fertilise 
thirty-four blossoms of various Potatoes with the pollen of S. Dulcamara, 
and in three cases have again been apparently successful, having been 
rewarded .with three ripe berries containing seed. I have also succeeded 
in obtaining one ripe berry with two seeds only, out of two crosses of 
S. Dulcamara with S. Commersonii. From an attempted fertilisation of 
8. Dulcamara with S. Maglia the result was nil. In nine attempts between 
the 27th June and the 11th August to cross the plants in pots of S. Com¬ 
mersonii, in a well-ventilated frame, with various Potatoes, the result was 
also nil. Forty-two attempts made between the 30th June and the 11th 
August to cross, under a frame, S. Maglia with various Potatoes also gave 
futile results ; but out of three attempts made to cross the Hammersmith 
Kidney Potato in the open ground with the pollen of S. Maglia, a single 
ripe berry, containing twenty seeds, has been secured, making a total of 
eight berries only out of 107 attempts at intercrossing, as tabulated below. 
Attempts at Berries. 
Table. Fertilisation. Obtained. 
S. Dulcamara with various Potatoes .. .. 18 .. 3 
S. Dulcamara with S. Commersonii .. .. 2 .. 1 
Potatoes various with S. Dulcamara .. .. 31 .. 3 
S. Commersonii with various Potatoes .. .. 9 .. nil. 
Potato Hammersmith Kidney with S. Maglia .. 8 .. 1 
S. Maglia with various Potatoes. 42 .. nil. 
S. Maglia with S. Dulcamara . 1 .. nil. 
Total 107 8 
It will thus be seen that where Messrs. Sutton, in their interesting 
experiments at Reading (recorded in the Times of the 29th November 
last) have apparently succeeded, I have failed, doubtless owing to my 
plants of S. Maglia and S. Commersonii being operated upon under 
artificial conditions in a frame, as I hesitated to plant them out for fear 
of checking the blossoming of my small stock. On the other hand, it may 
be that I have succeeded in an equally important, though converse 
direction, by obtaining seeds from a Potato crossed with the pollen of 
S. Maglia, and in another and more varied direction in securing seed from 
a Potato crossed with S. Dulcamara, and from that distinct species crossed 
with Potatoes Victoria and white-skinned Beauty of Hebron and from 
S. Dulcamara crossed with S. Commersonii. It is, however, the prospect 
of progeny between the Potato and S. Dulcamara that my interest will be 
centred in, as after making use of my plants in pots of S. Maglia and 
S. Commersonii, they with the plants of S. Jamesii and S. tuberosum were 
turned out into the open to ripen, and on examination in October I found 
nearly the whole of my stocks had disappeared from disease, apparently 
the ordinary Potato murrain, which had been rife in the locality. S. Jamesii 
was very weak both in pots and the open ground, and did not flower, and 
I looked upon it as altogether unsuited to my purpose. S. Commersonii 
was the first to flower, and, with the exception of a late-started plant, 
ripened off earlier than either of the others. On none of the imported 
species, either in pots or in the open, were there any seed balls. My 
further notes of the growing plants, made from general appearances only, 
are as follows :—“ S. Commersonii, slender stem, foliage somewhat 
frizzled, flowers purplish blue and white ” (others have noted this species 
as having white flowers), “query, in Ashleaf race of cultivated Potatoes.’’ 
“ S. Maglia, stronger stemmed than Commersonii, flower white, looks as 
if already in the blood of cultivated Potatoes.” It is, of course, too soon 
to predicate profitable and certain results, especially bearing in mind that 
peculiarity or quality in flavour only, or even combined with a perfect 
disease-resisting power, would be of little utility unless accompanied with 
great productiveness, and it can hardly be expected that the produce of 
such prolific Potatoes as Magnum Bonum and White Elephant can for 
many generations be excelled or even reached by the infusion of any of 
the species above alluded to. Furthermore, it will in no case do to take 
it for granted that an actual cross has been obtained ; but looking at the 
number of apparent failures and successes in proportion to the number of 
attempts, and taking into account also certain variations in the numbers 
of the seeds produced and of those obtained from the same plants 
normally fertilised, I am inclined, at all events, to prospect some novel, 
if not practical, result. 
Should a slight deviation only be obtained from either of the parents 
in the crosses between the Potato and S. Dulcamara on the one hand, in 
the direction of a more woody stem in the seedlings from the Potato, or 
on the other hand in the way of tubers to the seedlings from S. dulcamara, 
I should deem it an important gain, as on recrossing the deviating 
seedling with their parents a road would be opened which, being steadily 
followed up by further intercrossing, might lead to some certain and 
useful result. Next season, when I hope to continue the work and 
observations, ought to show whether my endeavours will have been 
attended with any amount of success. 
I have used the term “ cross-fertilisation ” throughout these notes in 
preference to the perhaps, in some instances, more correct definition 
“ hybridisation,” the former term appearing to me wider in its meaning 
and including hybridisation strictly. Anything worth recording hereon 
in future shall be at the service of your readers.— Thomas Laxton (in 
The Irish Farmers' Gazette'). 
VINERIES. 
I have read Mr. H. W. Ward’s remarks upon the building of 
vineries and consider them excellent generally. The advice is sound, and 
the building and internal arrangements are quite the best if I may except 
the heating. I do not agree with him in placing the pipes thus—four in 
front and two at the back ; a better way is to have the six pipes spread 
evenly over the surface of the border—say the first pipe to be within 
4 inches of the front wall, the remainder to be placed at equal distances of, 
say, 1 foot 9 inches apart. Instead of building a 9-inch pier for each 
pipe to rest upon, a better way is to have light H-shaped iron girders 
resting on a 4^-inch brick pier built in with the front wall of the house, 
and another 9-inch brick pier built to support the girder at the back. For 
a vinery 30 feet long four of these girders are sufficient to carry the pipes, 
they do not cost so much as brick piers. 
My reason for placing the pipes in the way named is this, that the 
heat from them is better equalised over the house than when the pipe3 
are placed together. Generally when they are placed as Mr. Ward pro¬ 
poses the Vines are more forward in that part of the house, and much 
more liable to the attacks of red spider, caused by the extra heat emitted 
from the pipes. In placing them as I suggest the temperature of the 
whole house is more equal, consequently there is less danger of red 
spider attacking the foliage in that particular spot. 
When the whole width of the vinery (17 feet) is not used for the Vine 
border (and it is hardly necessary), good pathways can be made by using 
Portland cement, which makes a clean hard pathway, very durable, easier 
to clean than iron grating', and quite as cheap when taking into con¬ 
sideration the framework required whereon the iron trellis rests.— 
E. Molyneux. 
INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 
In the introduction to the very interesting remarks anent these plants 
in the Journal, page 73, one statement at least may create in some minds 
an erroneous impression—viz., “ Insectivorous plants have the power of 
taking solid food into a structure which we are justified in calling a 
stomach,” this being based, I take it, upon remarks made a line or so 
previously as to the propounded distinction between animals and plants 
in the matter of food consumption. Quoting again, we find these state¬ 
ments :—“It was also said that animals were capable of consuming solid 
food while plants were not; this is also incorrect.” Now, there is no 
absolute analogy between the assimilation—a term not at all satisfactory 
—of plants and animals. Granted the original definition of these 
