1863 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
117 
What is the Potato ? 
It has already been hinted on page 53 of the 
Agriculturist that it is not a root, as ordinarily 
supposed, but a kind of branch. We now pro¬ 
pose to give some of the reasons for considering 
it a branch, without stopping to show how it is 
unlike a root. At first sight it appears to have 
little in common with the stem as we ordinarily 
see it, yet a careful comparison of the two, will 
perhaps discover resemblances which were not 
before noticed. Many persons suppose that 
botanists are chiefly engaged in giving hard 
names to plants, while the fact is they are main¬ 
ly occupied in studying the plan upon which 
plants are made; they find that all the great 
variety which vegetation presents can be re¬ 
duced to a few simple forms—the root, stem, 
and leaf, and wherever a part may be or what¬ 
ever shape it may assume, the keen eye of the 
skillful botanist penetrates the disguise and 
finds out its real nature. The potato, being as 
unlike a branch as well can be, will serve to 
illustrate the manner in which these resem¬ 
blances are traced out. In the first place the 
potato grows under ground. Every thing that 
grows beneath the surface is not a root, nor are 
roots always under ground, as every one who 
has hoed corn will have noticed. When we lay 
down a grape vine or a shrub, the layered por¬ 
tion is not a root, nor are the natural layers 
which rose bushes, and many other plants which 
spread in this way, make. The potato is the end 
of an underground branch, modified for a part¬ 
icular purpose, to serve which it becomes filled 
with starch and hence serves as an important ar¬ 
ticle of food. Let us take for comparison a 
twig of an apple tree and see if it has anything 
in common with the potato. At this season the 
apple twig has no leaves, but the scars, or pla¬ 
ces, were they were, are plainly to be seen, and 
directly above these are the buds which will 
produce the branches of the next season—each 
scar being separated from the next by a length 
or joint of stem. Aside from the fact that the 
potato, as it grows under ground does not need 
to have strength and is not woody, but fleshy, 
we find that both have these peculiarities. The 
buds on the apple stem are represented by the 
“eyes” in the potato, and branches proceed 
from both. The potato growing under ground 
has no use for leaves, but a little scale or wrinkle 
just under the eyes stands in place of them. 
These scales, which are more prominent in 
some varieties than in others, are best seen at 
the “seed end” of the potato. On page 53, the 
spiral arrangement of the eyes of the potato 
was noticed, and this can also be found on 
the apple twig. Perhaps the strongest proof 
that the potato is really a branches found in the 
fact that sometimes the above-ground branches 
become quite like the potato in size and shape 
and everything but color. We have seen in¬ 
stances in which every graduation could be 
traced between ordinary branches, having- 
leaves, and fully developed potatoes without 
leaves. The engraving is from a drawing made 
some time ago by Mr. Ed. M. Prutman of St. 
Joseph Co., Mich., and represents one of these 
branches which grew about a foot from the 
ground. It will be seen that it is intermediate 
between a potato and a branch. It is short and 
fleshy like a potato but bears leaves, and these 
leaves come exactly in the place of the scales 
upon the potato. 
Perennials for the Flower Garden. 
Every garden should have a good stock of re¬ 
liable herbaceous perennials, which as a class 
have been much neglected of- late for the more 
popular and more expensive bedding plants. 
Once set out, these plants need no other care 
than lifting and dividing when the roots get too 
large. They may be planted as soon as the frost 
is out of the ground and wall do all the better if 
the crowns are covered in winter with coarse 
stable manure. A friend of large experience 
has prepared at our request a list of 20 varieties 
which comprises a variety in color and time of 
blooming. To save answering inquiries we will 
say that we have none of these for sale, but 
they can be had at the principal nurseries. 
Ardbis alpina. —Flowers small, in clusters, pure 
white, six inches high; blooms in April. Achil¬ 
lea Ptarmica , plena. —Flowers double, pure white, 
1 foot high. June. Baptisia ccerulea. —Fine blue 
flowers; 2 feet high, May and June.— Var. alba 
with white flowers. Campanula cormiata.— Flow¬ 
ers clear white, semi-double, abundant bloomer; 
1 foot high, June and July. Campanula grandi- 
flora. —Large deep blue flowers, 2 feet, May and 
June. Clematis serratifolia erecta. — Flowers 
white, in long clusters, 3 to 4 feet, May. Clem¬ 
atis integrifolia. —Flower large, dark blue, bor¬ 
dered with white; 2 feet, last of May and 1st of 
June. Chelone barbata. —Fiery scarlet, borne on 
a long stem, 4 feet, June and July. Carnatio'iis 
(hardy).—'In varieties. Bicentra spedabilis, (often 
improperly called Dielytra).—Rosy crimson, one 
of the best border plants, 1 to 2 feet, May and 
June. Delphinium formosum. —Deep azure blue, 
with white center, 2 to 3 feet, June and July. 
D. Sinensis. —Bright blue, foliage quite distinct 
from the above, 2 feet, June. D. Sinensis alba. — 
Like the preceding but white flowers. Gerani¬ 
um Alysswn. —Flowers large, bluish purple, 8 
inches, July. Iris nana. —Bluish purple, 6 inch¬ 
es, May. lberis Tenoriana. —(Hardy perennial 
candytuft.)—White, 8 inches, April to July. 
Lychnis Chalcedonies.pleno. —Double scarlet, 3 feet, 
June and July. Phloxes in variety. Phlox verna, 
a fine trailing species with large pink flowers, 
should be admitted in to the smallest collection. 
Pentstemon Digitalis. —White, slightly tinged with 
purple, 3 to 4 feet, July. Spircea Filipendula ple¬ 
no.— Flowers very double, pure white, 1 foot, 
May and June. Spircea Japonica. —White, dis¬ 
tinct and really beautiful, 1 foot, May. Spircea 
lobata pleno. —Fine red, strong grower, 2 feet, 
June. Veronica spicata. —Deep blue, 1 foot, 
June and July. Veronica alba , similar to pre¬ 
ceding, but with pure white flowers. 
Cleaning- Clocks—" Cooking Time.” 
“Necessity” writing, to the Agriculturist from 
Sand Beach, Mich., says : “ Should any readers he 
situated as we are, in Huron Co., out of the reach 
of civilization and ‘ clock tinkers,’ and their brass 
time pieces refuse to he time pieces, for want of 
cleaning, the following may be of use : Unscrew 
the metal from the case, and boil the wheel works 
helf an hour or so in soap suds, and then five min¬ 
utes in clean water, drying off quickly. This will 
clear out dust and hardened oil, and the clock will 
be ready for resuming its daily duties.” [As a last 
resort, this may answer well forelocks moved by- 
weights. The boiling might injure the temper of 
the springs of those having this motive power, 
though perhaps not, and there can he no loss in ex¬ 
perimenting with a clock that has ceased to be good 
for anything. A very thin cojit of limpid oil, or 
even of fresh lard, if the oil be absent, should he 
brushed over the entire works with a feather, as soon 
as soou as dried from the water, to prevent the steel 
pinions from rusting. A very little oil stirred into 
the last cleaning hot water might answer.— Ed.] 
About Cloves and Allspice. 
Cloves are produced by a tree which is a native of 
the Molucca Islands, and were like nutmegs a long 
time under the exclusive control of the Dutch gov¬ 
ernment, who for many years would not allow the 
trees to grow upon any except the island of Am- 
boyua, from whence the highest priced cloves still 
come. The tree is from 15 to 30 feet high, with large 
aromatic leaves and hunches of very fragrant flow¬ 
ers. The spice is the unopened flower-buds, which 
are beat en off by means of rods and then dried. The 
little ball at the top of the clove is the unexpanded 
petals; by softening the clove in hot water these 
can be carefully laid open by means of a pin. The 
main portion of the clove is what would be the fruit 
were it allowed to go on and ripen. Our word 
clove, comes from the French clow, a nail. That be¬ 
ing the name by which the French call them on ac¬ 
count of their resemblance to a little nail. They 
contain a good deal of volatile oil, upon which their 
value depends. This oil is sometimes extracted in 
part and the cloves afterwards sold. These can be 
told by their lighter color and by having the but¬ 
tons or rounded portion broken off. Cloves readily 
