A study of the factors influencing the improvement of the potato / by Edward M. East.

  • Edward Murray East
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A study of the factors influencing the improvement of the potato / by Edward M. East. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/88
    1908.] 3. THE MODERN PLANT STRUCTURIi AND CHARACTERISTICS The potato is an annual, and in its original state reproduced freely by seeds. The tubers were then so small that it is doubtful whether the plant would have been preserved to us by this alternate means of reproduction. At present, however, many varieties never or at most rarely seed, and the plant has become virtually a peren- nial through its tubers. Baker (6) gives the following technical description of a wild plant: “Leaves pseudo-stipulate, a fully developed one about half a foot long, with seven to nine finely pilose, oblong-acute, large leaflets, the side ones stalked and unequally cordate at the base, the one to two lowest pairs much dwarfed, leaving a naked petiole about an inch long; the rhacis furnished with numerous small leaflets interspaced between those of full size. The flowers arranged in compound terminal cymes, with long peduncles; pedicels hairy, articulated about the middle. Calyx hairy, one-fourth to one-third* inch long, teeth deltoid- cuspidate, as long as, or a little longer than, the campanulate tube. Corolla dark lilac, subrotate, nearly an inch in diameter, pilose externally; segments deltoid, half as long as the tube. Anthers bright orange-yellow, linear-oblong, nearly one-fourth inch long, filaments very short. Berry perfectly globose, smooth, un- der an inch in diameter.” This description perfectly fits the cultivated potato of today, as Baker has already noted, with the exception that the lobes of the calyx are now a little more pointed. b. Fig. 3. Parts of Potato Flower. a. Back side of anther. o. Front side of anther. b. Pistil. cl. Cross section of anther. e. Tops of anther showing the openings.