THE NIGHTSHADE AND THE POTATO.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12506, 19 May 1906, Page 13

THE NIGHTSHADE AND THE POTATO.

to thk KnrTon or "the tress." gj ri Will yon kindly inform (mo through your paper " If n deadly night,<;hade*of , any cla«a originally comes from potatoes?"VourH, etc., BOTANIST. Mr R- -'M. Laing;, to whom wo sub-

mitted tho above query, writes:—'The potato h known to bettaniKto an solannm tuberorum. and tho deadly .as ntropa belladonna. , Thp -two plants therefore Iky Imig to different genera botanically. However, tho genera aro v«ry closely allied, differing chiefly in the shape of the corolla. The pot-ato comes originally . from South america, tho dondly nightshade from Great .Britain. Europe, and Asia. It is unlikely, therefore, that one has been derived from the other, though it in quite probablo that both have had <a common ancestor. It is impossible, to fltate where tho ancestor lived or to what spocios it belonged. "Them are, however, other plants known «« nightshades. Tho common nightshade is sol on urn dulcamara, tho black uightehado is solanum nigrum. The latter plant is almost cosmopolitan in its distribution, and as it belongs to the eamo genus as tho potato, tho two may bi» connected in origin, but it if unlikely that one has been derived directly from the other—certainly not without intervening stages, for each has relations which aro nearer fo it than the othor plant is. If ono w» pencticnJly connected with the othor, it w much more likely that the potato —which UK a moro highly specialised plant than either of the nightshades mentioned—hae been derived by many stages from the nightshade, than vice- * Tersa."