VIOLET POTATOES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8681, 14 March 1914, Page 13

VIOLET POTATOES

CURIOUS TUBERS FROM THE CONGO USED FOR GARNISHING.

One of the most comprehensive ex-, hiblts of potatoes seen in London for some years was staged recently by Messrs Sutton and Sons at the Horticultural Hall, and was awarded the, gold medal. There were about 150 varieties. One of them a Congo potato, much under the average size, revealed an interior deep violet in. colour. This particular tuber is said to be mostly used for garnishing purposes. At the experimental grounds atEead-y ing they are evolving a potato with a; red interior. Curiously enough, Professor William Bateson, in a lecture at the Royal Institution recently, mentioned that when the potato was introduced into Europe it was believed that the tuber was yellowish instead of reddish, but that had not been clearly made out. Tho early potato, he said, was not nearly ns good as the present ordinary maincrop variety, in regard to both S'zo and flavour. ‘‘There seems to be little doubt that other nations at first refused the potato, French particularly,” ho added. "The use of tho potato did not become usual in France until quite tho end of the sixteenth cen-| tury, as people there thought it pro-, duced cancer. The development of the potato wont on in England more than it did in any other country.”