234 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
December 11, 18S6. 
THE POTATO TERCENTENARY. 
For three or four days last week St. Stephen’s Hall, 
Westminster, was the scene of a very creditable 
exhibition of Potatos, in connection with the Food 
Exhibition now being held in the Westminster 
Aquarium, and on Thursday and Friday conferences 
were held thereat, of an interesting and instructive 
character, but we regret to say that both the exhibition 
and the conferences were very thinly attended. As 
briefly announced in our last, the winners of the 
medals offered for the best collections were Mr. Chop¬ 
ping, of Milton, Sittingbourne ; Mr. Diver, Pitshill, 
Petworth ; and Mr. Kerr, Dargavel ; and these were 
selected for distinction out of a considerable number of 
admirable collections. The special medal offered for 
any new variety, not yet in the market, was awarded 
to Mr. R. Lye, Clyffe Hall Gardens, Market Lavington, 
for his most promising seedling “Clipper,” which has 
already been highly praised in our columns, and the 
stock of which has passed into the hands of Mr. C. 
Fidler, of Reading, for distribution. Large collections 
of varied interest were staged by Mr. J. Watkins, 
of Pomona Farm, Hereford ; Mr. C. Fidler, Reading ; 
Messrs. Harrison & Sons, Leicester ; Messrs. Hooper & 
Co., Covent Garden ; and Messrs. Yilmorin, Andrieux 
& Co., Paris. There was besides a singularly interest¬ 
ing collection of maps and ancient books of travel, old 
herbais and works on botany, all more or less bearing 
on the subject of the introduction of the Potato. Yery 
appropriately too, the largest collection, devoted to 
the travels of Drake and Raleigh, came from a Plymouth 
gentleman, Dr. Brushfield. At Thursday’s conference 
Mr. William Carruthers, F.R.S., presided. 
Whence Came the Potato to England ? 
The first paper read was by Mr. W. S. Mitchell, M. A., 
who took for his subject “ The Historic Consideration of 
the Question—Whence Came the Potato to England ? ” 
He said that having already published the details of 
his researches on this matter, he would allude to a few 
of the important particulars requiring discussion. It 
was his own opinion that future generations would 
regard these conferences not so much as a celebration 
of the past, as approximately marking the commence¬ 
ment of a new era in Potato culture. The studies 
made by Mr. Baker with regard to the wild species of 
Potatos in connection with the suggestion of cross¬ 
breeding, selection, hybridisation and grafting were all 
new ; and an important question in relation to those 
subjects was whether the species we had been culti¬ 
vating for 300 years was distinct from the South 
American. According to history our Potato was a 
Virginian importation, but he thought it impossible 
that this could be correct. His task had been to go 
through the history of the period so as to see where 
the mistakes had arisen. History had misled botanists, 
and it would be useful at this tercentenary occasion 
for us to thoroughly wipe out the historic troubles 
arising through the carelessness of previous writers, so 
that future workers might have their path cleared for 
them. Mr. Mitchell then gave the reasons which 
induced him to believe that the Potato had been 
introduced into England by Sir Francis Drake in 1586. 
He believed that Drake had originally obtained the 
tuber from South America, either by purchase or 
plunder, and had conveyed it to England at the con¬ 
clusion of the voyage in which he relieved Raleigh’s 
Virginian colony. The Potato thus being brought in 
Drake’s ships, but with Raleigh’s colonists, would 
reconcile the contradictory traditions which ascribed 
the introduction of the Potato to both Raleigh and 
Drake. 
The chairman said that although he had already 
been over this ground with Mr. Mitchell, he was not 
altogether satisfied with his explanation. He thought 
it probable that the Potato might have reached Vir¬ 
ginia even in those early times as an article of food. 
The question of the native locality of the Potato was a 
very doubtful one. We had not yet obtained that 
absolute certainty about the wild plant which really 
represented the Solanum tuberosum. If the Potato 
had in old days been valued as highly as it is now, 
there is no reason why it should not have been scat¬ 
tered over the new world before the arrival of Columbus. 
A paper by Mr. "W. Herries Pollock, M.A., on 
“Drake’s Expedition in 1586,” was then read by Sir 
Richard Pollock. The paper gave an account of 
Drake’s voyage of 15S6, of the places touched at, and 
the enterprises carried out. 
Potato Cultivation by the Incas. 
Mr. C. R. Markham, F.R.S., read a paper upon 
“ Potato Cultivation by the Incas and other Andean 
nations. ” He said that the original home of the Potato 
was in the Cordilleras of the Andes in South America. 
There it had been cultivated from time immemorial 
over an extent of 3,000 miles. When the Spaniards 
first arrived, the Potato was a domesticated plant in the 
kingdom of the Chibchas, in the province of Queto, 
throughout the empire of the Incas of Peru, and in 
Chili. This fact of its immemorial cultivation 
rendered it difficult to ascertain with certainty the 
localities where the Potato was indigenous. It was 
most probable, on the whole, that the Potato originally 
grew wild in suitable localities throughout the Cordilleras 
of Peru and Chili. A description of the physical 
geography of these districts, and of the system of 
government under which its inhabitants lived, then 
followed. Mr. Markham observed that the government 
was practically a theocratic socialism, which secured an 
almost complete absence of distress and pauperism 
among its people, and under which the Potato became 
a cultivated plant. The Potato was unknown further 
north than the highlands of Bogota in Columbia ; and 
it was there that one of the three American civilizations 
had its root—viz., that called by the Spanish conquerors 
the Mysca nation. Its people spoke a language called 
Chibcha, which is now extinct. But vocabularies have 
been preserved, and they revealed the fact that the 
ancient people of Bogota cultivated the Potato ex¬ 
tensively, and had produced several varieties. 
The Tuberous Solanums. 
Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., of the Royal Herbarium, 
Kew, read a paper upon “The Wild Germs of 
Tuberous Solanums.” He said that the well-marked, 
thoroughly distinct species of tuber-bearing Solanums 
were five in number, and were all natives of America. 
These five were the Solanum tuberosum (including the 
numerous sub-species and varieties), the S. Commer- 
soni, the S. cardrophyllum, the S. Jamesii, and the S. 
oxycarpum. The Potato of cultivation originated from 
the first-named species. The S. tuberosum, in one 
form or another, extended down the western side of the 
American continent from the Rocky Mountains, in 
latitude 30 deg. north, to the Chonos Archipelago, off 
the coast of Patagonia, in latitude 45 deg. south. 
Within this area were found no less than sixteen forms, 
so far different from one another that they had been 
named by some botanical writers as distinct species. 
They were not so, however, in any comprehensive sense. 
The S. tuberosum was, therefore, one of those poly¬ 
morphic vegetable types, of which we have very similar 
examples in the old world in the genus Rubus, the 
Raspberry, the Cloudberry, and the saxatilis. The 
extreme forms look very different from one another 
when they were placed side by side, but in the whole 
series there was to be found’no very decided gap of 
character. Though the Potato had been cultivated in 
Europe for 300 years, we knew very little that was 
trustworthy about the deterioration that might be pro¬ 
duced in the distinguishing characters by changes of 
climate and soil. He wished that some one would 
undertake to monograph the tuberous Solanums in the 
same thorough way that Mr. George Maw had just 
monographed the Crocuses. We did not at present 
even know clearly whether S. tuberosum, the commonly 
cultivated esculent, was really an original type or a 
form produced b} r man’s agency, and in investigating 
the relations to it of the other fifteen S. tuberosum 
forms there was scope for the labour of a lifetime. He 
would add that Mr. Markham’s paper was of excep¬ 
tional value and interest, and if nothing more came 
from the conferences, a new' era in the history of the 
Potato had been inaugurated by Mr. Markham’s con¬ 
tribution. It contained an enormous flood of informa¬ 
tion, which would put the botanical and historical 
bearing of the question in an entirely new light. 
Botanists had not had the least idea of the large extent 
to which it appeared the Potato was cultivated at the 
very early period Mr. Markham had mentioned. 
At the afternoon meeting Mr. Baker presided. 
The Potato Disease. 
Mr. G. Murray, F.L.S., Natural History Museum, 
read a paper on “The Potato Disease,” his remarks 
being illustrated by a number of diagrams of the fungus 
in its various stages. He said that the history of the 
disease was a recent one as compared with the history 
of the Potato itself, notice having first been called to 
it in 1845, when it was probably brought to the country 
from Belgium. After describing the nature of the 
fungus, Mr. Murray said that he had satisfied himself 
that the disease was propagated by the spores being 
distributed by the wind. A number of glass slides, 
such as are used with a microscope, having been 
covered with glycerine and placed on the lee side of a 
field of infected Potatos, when a slight breeze was 
blowing, it was found that after an exposure of a few 
hours the slides each contained a number of these 
spores. From continuous microscopic investigation, 
it has been seen that the complete fungus was produced 
in three hours ; and this fact accounted for the sudden 
and disastrous spread of the disease. No system of 
earthing up the Potatos could, he believed, be efficacious 
in checking the disease, neither could confidence be 
placed in any legislative enactments regulating the 
planting of Potatos. 
Earl Cathcart said it .would be interesting to know 
whether the Potato disease was an effect or a cause. 
With regard to the degeneracy of the Potato, he might 
mention that it was a fact that no supposed disease- 
■resisting Potato had ever existed for more than about 
twenty years. That, in itself, he considered to be an 
argument in favour of the theory that plants are liable 
to degenerate when over-cultivated. 
Introduction of the Potato into France. 
Mr. Henry Leveque de Vilmorin, of Paris, then read a 
paper upon “The Introduction of the Potato into 
France,” and stated that Clusius had remarked that 
the Spaniards had introduced the Potato to the con¬ 
tinent of Europe. It was introduced to the Dauphiny 
of France from Switzerland. It was not extensively 
grown at first, and was for a time used only as fodder 
for animals. A very strong prejudice existed against 
it. A parliament of one of the provinces of France 
decreed that it should not be cultivated, as it might 
bring forth diseases and visitations of a like character. 
Eventually a bouquet of flowers of Potatos was pre¬ 
sented to the King, and this led to the Potato becoming 
fashionable. In 1819 it was grown at Versailles and 
round Paris also, and now it is largely cultivated all 
through France. (To be continued). 
--H&e*- 
GENTIANA ACAULIS. 
When looking over the gardens at Didlington Hall, 
Norfolk, in October last, I was much charmed with 
this lovely Gentian, which was there doing so grandty. 
It has induced me to send you this note in the hope that 
it may encourage others who, like myself, have not 
succeeded in blooming it satisfactorily to persevere with 
it. I saw r it growing at Didlington in a long narrow 
bed in the flower garden exposed to the east, and 
standing in the open. It was growing in the ordinary 
soil of the garden without any preparation whatever. 
It was full of bloom, and I counted from fifty to sixty- 
blossoms open on quite _a small bed, with many more 
buds to open, and this at the middle of October. I was 
assured by Mr. Stocking, the gardener, that they had 
no difficulty in getting it to bloom well. He remarked 
“ that bed was covered with blooms in the spring, and 
it has continued flowering more or less during the 
summer. ” He further remarked that the bed was blue 
with bloom every season. 
It is said by some that Gentiana aeaulis needs a, 
stony, dry, hard soil, but at Didlington the soil is a 
sandy bog, and the situation low, the stream that 
supplies the lake running close by, so that it is not 
much above the water level. 
In the place from which I write we have some large 
patches of this Gentian, and our soil and situation is 
just the reverse of the above, and although the plants 
grow and look grand, we are rewarded only by two or 
three blooms to a patch 1 ft. or more across. We think 
so highly of it that we tried it in a number of soils and 
situations, but with the same results. We placed it on 
a rock-bank in the autumn of 1885, and last season 
the crop of bloom was about as usual. I have tried it 
in loamy soil, treading well around it on the stones 
placed about the plant; again in almost all gravel; in 
fact, in every way I could think of as likely to induce 
it to bloom, but with the same results. In all soils 
and situations it grows very fast, but does not flower 
freely. I have this season been treating it to more 
water during the summer to see what effect that has. 
I am inclined to think that there is something in 
the soil that is beneficial to it where it blooms so well, 
