There is an interesting account in Tuesday's Times of an
attempt made to breed a potato which shall not be averse to wet soils as our ordinary potato, the origin of which is an Andes potato growing in places where rain is almost unknown, certainly is. It was thought that if a potato could be produced from a species which prefers marshy soils, it might not become diseased, as our potatoes certainly do, from being exposed to very wet seasons. For this reason, an attempt was made to get a crop of potatoes from the stock of the Solanum Magna, discovered by Darwin in the Chonos Archipelago, and always found in marshy soils. The experiment succeeded, but on fuller investigation it was found that, after all, it was not the Sofenuet Maglia whioh was the origin of the new crop, but the wild Soianuntuberosuns, which is cultivated side by side with it in Kew Gardens. The new potato is a cross between this Solanuni tuberosum and the potato called" Sutton's Reading Russet." The potatoes are very good in quality and shape, and are of a stock which, as it is hoped, may be less liable to suffer from wet. But that is just the point still to be tested.
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