Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Edwin Lankester. Revised and partly rewritten].

  • Edwin Lankester
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Edwin Lankester. Revised and partly rewritten]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    IGG not at all advantageous for any culture, except in some instances, when it is required to multiply as quickly as possible a rare sort. The tubers obtained from seeds are at first very few and very small, and therefore seed cultivation is by no means advisable to “the grower” of potatoes; but it is of great service to “ the breeder,” who seeks to im- prove its quality. No vegetable is more yielding to the hand of the cultivator than this plant, liaising it from seed enables him to obtain varieties without end, and attention to the qualities of those between which the crossings take place, admits of obtaining any particular quality that may be wanted. On the other hand, by cultivation from the tubers a good variety may be extended and preserved after it has been once obtained ; as the plant from the tuber is not a new )dant, like that which is procured by the opera- tions of dowering and seeding, but an identical part of the old one. Though the jilanting tubers will not lead to any new variety, it may have efibets every way as advantageous; for no plant profits more by changes from one district to another. Besides improvement in qualit}^ which a judicious change produces, it likewise often prevents a disease to which the potato is liable. This disease is known by the technical name of the curl or the curl-top, a name by no means inexpressive of the a])pcarance of the plant when under its influence. The top leaves begin to shrink just about the time that the tubers should form, the young shoots cease to expand, and the whole ])lant assumes very much the appearance of the tip of a cherry twig, when the under leaves are assailed by ai)hidcs. From the moment in which this disease appears, all further growth in the ])lant ceases, and though it may linger in a yellow and sickly state until autumn, the ])roducc, if any, is little, and that little is of a bad quality. If, as soon as the disease shows itself, the tuber which has been planted be taken up, it will be found much firmer and less exhausted than those of the jdants of the same asrc that arc in a healthy state. This at the same time
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