March 28, 1896. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
481 
not taken any steps to prepare the seed before 
sowing you may have to wait some time before the 
seedlings begin to come up. Perhaps your best plan 
will be to make another sowing, treating the seed in 
the manner suggested before committing it to the 
soil. 
-■ -' t — 
POTATOS. 
The excellent paper on the subject of Potatos, which 
was read by Mr. Arthur W. Sutton, F.L.S., of 
Messrs. Sutton & Sons, Reading, and illustrated by 
means of lantern slides, at a meeting of the Royal 
Horticultural Society on the 29th of October last, 
now appears in book form as a reprint from the 
Journal of the society. It has been revised by the 
author, and copiously illustrated with photographic 
copies of the lantern slides used at the lecture. 
Neither pains nor expense have been spared in 
making the book worthy of this universally-popular 
vegetable, the Potato. It runs to forty-four pages, 
and contains forty-nine illustrations interwoven with 
the text, while the paper and printing leave no room 
for improvement, so far as we can see. This latter 
statement we make by way of precaution, as science 
continues to show us, from year to year, that it con¬ 
tinues to surpass previous efforts, and has not yet 
reached the ultima thule of progress and perfection. 
The book is published by Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall, 
Hamilton, Kent & Co., Limited, at the price of half- 
a-crown. 
As the subject matter has already appeared in our 
pages we have confined ourselves to the illustrations, 
which are marvels of photographic art and per¬ 
spicacity. They appear in the pages of the Journal 0) 
the Royal Horticultural Society, and for those used to 
illustrate these notes we are indebted to Messrs. 
Sutton & Sons. John Gerarde, the writer of the 
Herbal, seems to have thought very highly of 
the Potato, as he is represented with a flowering and 
fruiting spray of the plant, just as Linneus was with 
the Linnaea borealis named after him. For an 
illustration of a reproduction of Gerarde’s engraving 
of the Potato about the time of its introduction, see 
p. 477. While speaking of it we may as well con¬ 
trast the same with Sutton’s Windsor Castle (on the 
same page) to give our readers an idea both of the 
vast improvement which has been accomplished in 
the noble tuber and the method of pourtraying the 
same. The author has left nothing untouched that 
may be of interest to cultivators, short of going into 
histological detail, which, however, may be dealt 
with at some not distant date. Flowers, bunches of 
fruits, entire, and cut so as to show the arrangement 
of the seeds, and the details of the flowers are 
graphically represented. These figures are given in 
that part of the lecture which deals with the “ raising 
of seedlings.” Mr. Sutton advocates patience in 
those who would raise new Potatos, inasmuch as it 
might be necessary to raise from 100 to 1,000 seed¬ 
lings before finding anything superior to existing 
sorts, and worthy of perpetuation. Tubers of seed¬ 
lings both in the first and fourth year of their 
existence are represented. 
Nothing worthy of attention has escaped the 
notice of Messrs. Sutton & Sons in their trial grounds 
at Reading. Many rare and curious Potatos are here 
graphically delineated, including Papa Amarilla, the 
African, Rocky Mountain, Red and White Fir-apple, 
Black Congo, Almond, and many other Potatos. The 
Almond Potato, extensively grown in Norway, is very 
small, but remarkably smooth-skinned and beautiful. 
By lifting the tubers before they are quite ripe the 
texture and character of new Potatos can be retained 
throughout the year. That the tubers of Potatos are 
equivalent to underground branches is now well known 
to botanists. Aerial branches under certain conditions 
may also undergo tuberation, and some of these 
instances are well shown in the book. See p. 479 
for one of them. Several plants belonging to the 
same and other genera of the Potato family are 
'¥• : sr ' • 
given to show their close affinity with the Potato, 
notwithstanding the fact that some of them are very 
poisonous. Solanum Maglia and S. etuberosum are 
species or very distinct forms of S. tuberosum ; and 
a hybrid seedling is also represented' Many of these 
areof more than botanical interest or mere curiosities. 
Many of our readers are already familiar with a large 
number of Messrs. Sutton & Sons’ excellent pro¬ 
ductions in the matter of Potatos fit for table use. 
Quality and weight of crop, as well as disease- 
resisting capabilities and shapeliness, are points that 
receive the premier consideration in preference to 
mere monstrosity of size. That all the maincrop and 
most other kinds can be grown to a size sufficient for 
any purpose is well-known. Modern introductions 
are represented by ten very select and useful 
varieties; and one can hardly imagine more perfect 
illustrations than the photographic copies of the 
lantern slides that were used by the author in 
October last. The ten varieties in question are 
Sutton's Ringleader, Harbinger, Ai, Early Regent, 
Supreme, Triumph, Windsor Castle, Satisfaction, 
The Sutton Flourball and Magnum Bonum. 
Sutton’s Ringleader (see accompanying illustration) 
is one of the earliest Potatos in cultivation, and to 
this commendable qualification are added high quality, 
productiveness, white flesh, and excellent flavour. 
For forcing and early use it would be difficult to beat, 
as many a cultivator has testified. The tubers are 
excellent for table purposes as soon as they are large 
enough for lifting. Supreme (see the accompanying 
illustration) was introduced by the Reading firm as 
recently as 1893. It is practically a second early 
of beautiful pebble shape with a smooth white skin, 
occasionally russeted, and having very shallow eyes. 
One of its leading recommendations is its enormous 
cropping capabilities, the tubers being almost wholly 
of usable size. It is of strong and vigorous constitu¬ 
tion, disease-resisting, and the tubers are of first-class 
flavour as soon as they are fit for lifting. Being 
dwarf in habit it is well adapted for garden culture, 
and has produced at the rate of 18 tons 6cwt. per 
acre. The beautiful shape of these Potatos takes 
the eye, as the flavour and quality please the palate. 
Amongst plants allied to the Potato we cannot 
omit mention of the Tomato, of which the author 
gives a beautiful illustration of flowers and fruit to 
show how closely the same parts of the Potato are 
imitated ; but while the berries of the latter are only 
of use in the raising of new varieties, those of the 
Tomato have become a popular and valuable article 
of human food. For a reproduction of Gerarde's 
engraving of the Tomato plant in his day, see p. 783. 
The corrugated fruits resemble those known as Large 
Red pretty closely. Great improvements have also 
been effected here since Gerarde’s day. The experi¬ 
ments conducted at Reading in the grafting of the 
Tomato on the roots of the Potato and vice versa 
were of a most interesting character whatever the 
ultimate results may give rise to. Tubers were 
produced by the Potato roots underground, and 
fruits by the Tomato stems above. For an illustra¬ 
tion of this see p. 483. In some instances where the 
Potato was the aerial portion of the compound plant, 
the base of the stem produced tubers. Flowers of 
the Tomato were fertilised with the pollen of the 
Potato and vice versa, for the results of which we 
shall look to Reading, where the experiments are 
bemg conducted. 
--- 
LANDSCAPE WORK.* 
I shall to-night deal principally with a few of the 
items one has to consider in the laying out and down 
of a lawn ; and as on most of these items one could 
easily write a paper, I shall require to be very brief 
on many of them. 
A lawn has been defined as an open space of 
short grass ground immediately surrounding the 
mansion ; and I would say the more extensive it is, 
if well laid out and kept tidy, the greater its power as 
a factor, in giving importance and grandeur to the 
mansion. The size of a lawn, and the style of its 
decorations, and the way it is kept, is a criterion 
which will invariably give an adequate idea to visitors, 
and the public of the position or grade in the social 
life that the owner of the mansion fills, or in other 
words, if blessed with that which most desire— 
wealth. A lawn which is worthy of the name is of 
great interest and vital importance to gardeners ; for 
they are invariably its designers, makers, and keepers. 
I would say, in considering the making of a lawn, it 
would, generally speaking, be simply foolish to copy 
the design of a lawn, and its decorations laid out 
somewhere else. Of course, one may be helped by 
taking parts, but the environments and the surround¬ 
ing country would invariably be entirely different. 
The designer has not simply to consider the piece of 
ground to lay out, but also the environs ; the latter 
are the factors on which he bases his designs for 
planting. He who does not utilise these environs, 
and the surrounding country along with the style of 
*A paper read on February 4th, before the Corbridge and 
District Horticultural Society by Mr. J. Cameron, gardener, 
Byethorn, Corbridge-on-Tyne. 
Potato, Sutton’s Supreme. 
Potato, Sutton’s Ringleader. 
