HYBRID POTATOES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 19, 9 November 1910, Page 40

HYBRID POTATOES.

The Rev. J. Ackman Paton gives in the current number of the “Journal” of the Royal Horticultural Society an account of his recent experiments in crossing species of Solanuni. As the author points out, the ordinary commercial varieties of the potato are by no means convenient subjects for the experimental investigation of unit, hereditary characters. for they themselves are hybrids and require to be self-fertilised, land their descendants classified before they could be made to serve this purpose. Of the species-crosses made by the Rev. J. Paton, that between the white-flowering Solanum Commersonii and S. tuberosum (wild Mexican form) yielded 12 berries, containing in all 33 seeds. From this seed nine plants were raised. These El plants have yielded numerous seed-ber-

ries, so that there should be a considerable number of F2 plants on which the Rev. J. Paton will be able to pursue his interesting investigations. The most striking feature exhibited by the tubers produced by the hybrid (Fl) plants is their apparently complete immunity from late blight (Phytophthora infestans).

Should they stand the test of further trials, with respect to immunity from this disease, the hybrids will undoubtedly prove of the highest commercial value, either for their own merits or for thenuse in crossing with cultivated varieties. —“Gardener’s Chronicle.”