Jane 2, 1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
437 
another great advantage. To secure a vigorous growth for the tubers, 
roots should as necessarily be formed before their leaves as should those 
of a Hyacinth in a glass or pot to insure a handsome flower. By 
repeatedly moulding Potatoes in their infancy the formation of young 
Potatoes is accelerated, and by the second week in May, when the tops 
arc allowed their liberty, the tubers are also claiming their share from 
the roots, which checks the extravagance of the branch ; and the result 
is a reciprocal action. I have never had grander tops since I adopted 
this plan, and my crops have been increased abundantly, with a 
decidedly more even appearance. In finishing the mouldings make 
them present broad shoulders, with 18 inches of surface, slightly 
inclining towards the Potato stems, thus producing moisture and a large 
body of soil for the tubers to form in near at home, for by the 
ridiculous pointed ridge.this is rendered impossible. 
Should our Potatoes produce blossoms it will be a sure sign of 
health ; but as Potatoes are not grown for the sake of either their 
flowers or their berries, every particle of matter which is consumed by 
the plant in producing them is a dead loss to the grower ; for flowers 
must exist and feed on something, and that something is what would 
collect in the tubers. If the production of flowers is a loss the mischief 
is infinitely increased when the flowers are succeeded by the berries. All 
Nature expends its best energies in the production of seed after its kind, 
and it is probable that if the flowers abstract one ounce of organisable 
matter the seed consumes twice as much. Suppose a Potato plant to bear 
three bunches of berries, each bunch weighing a quarter of a pound, 
that is three-quarters of a pound per plant, an acre of ground may be said 
to carry from 15 to 20,000 plants, which proves a loss of about 4 tons of 
tubers for that quantity of ground, which might have been prevented 
by picking off the bloom. I destroy all Potato blossoms more sedulously 
than I would weeds, and by doing so before the blooms expand, the 
flower stalks being then brittle, it is much more easily performed. 
The only preventive for the murrain I can recommend is to use 
diligence according to the measure I have pointed out, and so, instead of 
the disease proving itself a curse, it is made to become a blessing to man 
through instructing him to secure two crops from his ground in the 
place of one. That the Potato disease which continues to manifest 
itself, like most other epidemical visitations affecting the animal and 
vegetable creation, proceeds from peculiar dispositions of the atmosphere, 
have been and still remains an established theory with myself. For 
when I revolve in my mind all those various features, such as blight, 
mildew and smut, which infest the cereals and vegetables, or fevers 
with other infections at different periods attacking the human and 
animal forms, 1 should certainly wonder if the Potato remained 
an exception to the rule, though I never could arrive at the conclusion 
of those people who doom the tuber to inevitable destruction in 
consequence. 
What my experience leads me to advise is that whenever the haulm 
of Potatoes becomes stricken badly with disease then is the time to lift 
the crop. For when we observe the fruit upon a suddenly withered 
branch, if any person were to tell us it would ripen and become 
benefited by remaining there we should laugh at him, and not without 
reason. Now all fruit and vegetables, whether they grow in or above 
the soil, depend for their perfection upon healthy leaves ; and if from 
any unnatural check or blight their leaves become stricken and disabled, 
then the sooner the fruit is gathered, or the vegetable take o up, the 
better. And I know, if the Potatoes are allowed to remain in the soil 
long after the haulm is dead from disease, that upon then taking them up 
one-half will be either quite unfitted for food or approaching to that 
state. Let the sound Potatoes remain where you can observe them, to 
sort out the diseased ones as they appear. This is as I consider the most 
economical and common-sense view of the matter. I will not urge the 
question whether a Potato crop should be taken out of the soil or not; 
if it goes through its ripening process and carry a hale and healthy 
foliage to the allotted time of Nature that must depend upon individual 
option ; for my own part, even in this desirable state of things, I should 
lift them on the first dry opportunity. 
I well know that many persons, for want of convenience, must 
generally take to the pitting practice in storing Potatoes, and I can 
confidently say I lost more through that off-hand system before the 
disease came than. I have ever done since. The way I manage now is 
this : I never store them till after they have undergone the preparatory 
sorting course I recommended ; I then place them in a dark cellar on 
trays made from old doors or slabs, with boards about 12 inches deep 
nailed to their ends and sides. I thus keep the tubers immediately 
under my eye to watch their movements and keep their shoots from 
growing at any time. I find they keep perfectly this way, even into the 
autumn of the following year. 
If Potatoes must be stored in heaps fix on a dry, rather sloping 
situation ; allow the pit or tump to be fashioned lengthways, with a 
breadth of 4 feet at the bottom, and gradually in packing narrow it to 
a ridge. Form a trench around by digging out sufficient soil to case the 
Potatoes with, 6 inches thick at least, and finish off by thatching with 
fern or straw, to prevent danger from wet or frost. Allow the eaves to 
hang well down into the trench, which will lead off the drip water and 
leave the Potatoes high and dry. Never place straw next to the tubers, 
as it soon rots there and imparts a bad flavour to them. If a shed or 
other house is at command, and sufficiently closed in to keep out all 
frosts and wet, give a preference and store the Potatoes there. And 
wherever they are, if you can procure cither dry mould, sand, or cinder 
ashes, placing either of these an inch or two in thickness alternately 
with layers of Potatoes, all 1 can say is, you may then, when they reach 
a high price at market late in the spring, depend upon having sound 
first-rate Potatoes to sell or otherwise, which will well repay for this 
extra care and labour. 
RANUNCULUS CORTUS^EFOLIUS. 
At the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on May 24th 
this year, E. G. Loder, Esq., Floore, Weedon, Northamptonshire, 
exhibited a specimen of Ranunculus cortusiefolius (fig. 75), which was 
one of the most remarkable plants shown on that occasion, and is also 
one of the most showy Buttercups yet brought into notice. The plant 
in question had somewhat heart-shaped leaves, fi inches and more in 
diameter, slightly lobed, and with a toothed margin ; the leaves on the 
Fig, 75.—Ranuncnlas corta c tefolius. 
stem being stalkless, with three lanceolate divisions. Tne flowers are 
large, fully 2 inches in diameier, of a bright golden yellow colour, are 
very numerous, and are borne in a paniculate head 2,J feet high. 
R. cortusajfolius, which has been designated as “ unquestionably the 
handsomest of all the Buttercups yet known to botanists, 1 ' is a native of 
Madeira and the Canary Islands, being confined, it is said, toone locality in 
Madeira—vis., Ribeira Frio. It has been known for a considerable 
time, and has been described by various botanists under the names R« 
Teneriffse, R. grandifolius, and R. heuclienefolius ; but that given at 
the head of this note is the accepted title, under which it was well 
figured in the “ Botanical Magazine,” January, 1852, and described by 
the ex-curator of the Royal Gardens, New, Mr. John Smith. It is, how* 
ever, there said to be hardy, though frame protection is advised 
during the winter. At Floore it has not been found to be hardy, ami 
