Tuber

“ Turning now to tubers: in the common Potato (Solanum tuberosum) a single bud or eye sometimes varies and produces a new variety; or, occasionally, and this is a much more remarkable circumstance, all the eyes in a tuber vary in the same manner and at the same time, so that the whole tuber assumes a new character. For instance, a single eye in a tuber of the old Forty-fold potato, which is a purple variety, was observed [69] to become white ”

“ The tubers may be laid thickly upon the bed, but they are less apt to rot if they do not touch each other. Sometimes the tubers are cut in two lengthwise, the cut surface being placed down, in order to place all the plant-giving surface uppermost. In four or five weeks the young plants—three to five inches high—are pulled off and planted, and others soon arise to take their places. One hand should be held firmly upon the soil over the tuber, while the sprout is pulled off to keep it in place. ”

“ Their skin is remarkably like potato-peel, and altogether their colour, sometimes yellow, sometimes a thoroughly purple-brown, adds to the resemblance. Very frequently these plants grow wild, but in that condition the tubers are quite small, and have a taste so pungent that they are said by the natives to be full of a dangerous poison. To a kindred species which is found wild, and which produces a horn-shaped tuber, we shall have to allude hereafter. ”

“ It can be grown successfully by any one who is willing to give it a little attention. Tubers should be obtained in March or April. They should be planted in pots containing sandy garden loam into which a liberal amount of good fertilizer has been thoroughly worked. If the tubers are small, two or three can be put into each seven-inch pot used. Before planting them the mass of dried roots which will generally be found adhering to the base of the tuber should be cut away with a thin, sharp-bladed knife. ”

“ The Tuberose is a gross feeder, and succeeds best in light loam, but will grow in any moist rich soil.
Its complete requisites are heat, water, and manure. If these are proportionate, no matter how much there may be, the plant will consume it.
And here is an incident in Tuberose culture (backed by good authority) where Nature, scorning slower methods of evolution, "got on a hustle" and produced a new variety on the spot. ”

“ The tree throws out long horizontal roots, which do not penetrate very deeply into the earth, and upon these are found, at short distances, round black-coloured tubers about eight inches in diameter, consisting entirely of a white cellular substance which is full of water; these, which are evidently intended by nature to supply the vegetation of the tree during the dry season, are often dug out by travellers for the sake of the water they contain, each tuber yielding about a pint of excellent quality. ”

“ True-Love.—See Herb Paris.
TUBEROSE.—The name Tuberose is simply a corruption of the plant’s botanical title Polianthes tuberosa. The Malayans call this sweet-scented flower “The Mistress of Night:” when worn in the hair by a Malayan lady, the blossom is an indication to her lover that his suit is pleasing to her. The Tuberose is a native of India, whence it was first brought to Europe towards the close of the sixteenth century. Its blossoms were at first single, but La Cour, a Dutch florist, obtained the double-flowering variety from seed. ”

“ As I write, the air is filled with a sweet penetrating fragrance, which comes from a tuberose, placed near me on the window-sill. The narrow stalk seems scarcely strong enough to support its thick, knob-like head with the withered buds and sickly, onion-shaped leaves. A tuberose is a poor [27] unshapely thing at the best of times, but this plant is unhealthy because it has lived too long as an ornament in a dark corner of the room under the chandeliers, among albums and photographs. ”

“ Tuberoses should be started in a warm place where they will not be exposed to draughts or chills. Before potting, take a sharp knife and remove all the old root and hard substance about the base, leaving but a thin layer below the bulb. ”

“ Depressed-globose, proliferous and cespitose, tuberculate-ribbed, unarmed plants: tubercles at first conical and bearing at summit a flower-bearing areola with a dense tuft or short pencil of compact erect hairs, when mature becoming broad and rounded (with the remnant of the penicellate tuft as a persistent pulvillus in a small central depression) and coalescing into broad convex vertical ribs: spine bearing areolae obsolete: flowers borne at the summit of nascent tubercles: ovary naked (that is free from scales, but often downy) : fruit and seed unknown. ”

“ In the following species of this genus hypostomic tubercles have formerly been recorded.
Cal. Blumenbachi Salter Monogr. pl. 8, fig. 9. The identity of the species is dubious.
Cal. duplicata Salter Mon. pl. 9, fig. 22. The tubercles rather more linear and approximated than in the subsequent. ”

“ This is a great mistake, as the tubers will not endure as long a period of rest and cannot be exposed to the air for a long time without seriously injuring their vitality. The tubers must be kept in dry earth or sand, until they show signs of growth, which will be not later than the first of March; then they may be started into rapid growth. After the eyes are fully developed the tubers may be divided: each eye will make a plant. Then they are treated in all respects like greenhouse plants, [227] and grown on until the proper season for their planting out. ”

“ A row of enlarged scales forms a distinct collar across the ventral half of the neck, in front of the chest. The scales on the back are much smaller than those on the tail, which is long, round, and pointed. The digits have smooth, tubercular lamellae on the under surface. Femoral pores are well marked. This genus, with about twenty species, ranges through Europe, Northern and Western Asia, and Africa north of the Equator. ”

“ These tubercles have the effect of little vaults or domes; and they are usually placed at those parts of the external shell, beneath which there is no immediate support from the internal transverse plates (see Pl. 37, Fig. S. Pl. 42, Fig. 3. c. d. e. and Pl. 40, Fig. 5.) [40]
Similar tubercles are introduced with the same advantage of adding Strength as well as Beauty in many other cognate genera of chambered shells. ”

“ The annuals, and most of the other species, are raised from seeds. The tuberous kinds may be increased by tubers « 270 » or divisions of them. The stove and greenhouse shrubby plants may be propagated by cuttings, inserted when young in a warm frame. ”

“ The tuberous root-stock sends up a stem 3 feet in height, with numerous lanceolate leaves and terminal racemes of white funnel-shaped, very fragrant flowers. Each flower is about 11/2 inches long, with a long tube and a six-parted limb. The stamens are six in number, emerging from the upper part of the tube, and bear linear anthers. The ovary is three-celled ”

“ Leaves palmately 5-foliolate; root tuberous; spike-like racemes dense.
8. P. esculénta, Pursh. Roughish hairy all over; stem stout (5–15 ́ high) and erect from a tuberous or turnip-shaped farinaceous root; leaflets obovate- or lanceolate-oblong; spikes oblong, long-peduncled; lobes of the calyx and bracts lanceolate, nearly equalling the corolla (1⁄2 ́ long) .—High plains, Sask. to Wisc., Iowa, and Tex. June. The Pomme blanche, or Pomme de Prairie, of the voyageurs.
9. P. hypogæ̀a, Nutt. Tuber small; nearly acaulescent, hoary with appressed hairs; leaflets linear ”

“ Variation.—The distal subarticular tubercle beneath the fourth finger is bifid in about two-thirds of the specimens; in the rest it is round. The posterior edge of the tongue varies from being emarginate to shallowly notched. In most specimens the row of tubercles along the outer edge of the tarsus is made up of discrete tubercles, but in some individuals the tubercles form a nearly continuous dermal fold. ”

“ The under side exhibits ten pairs of rows of tubercles, largest at the margin, and diminishing gradually to the central orifice. On the upper surface the tubercles are much smaller, and there are two additional rows on the inter-ambulacral bands, external to those which are continued downwards over the base. ”

“ While we were helping Jack along, and passing a place where the boar had been grubbing, I noticed some such curious knotty roots or tubercles, that I brought away specimens. Are they worth anything, do you think? they have a strong smell. ”

“ Each tubercle bears a radiating tuft of about twelve spines, one central and projecting outwards; they are pale brown when old, and white when young; their length is about 1⁄2 in. A tuft of short, white wool is developed at the base of the spines on the young mammae. The stem is seldom more than 4 in. in height, and it branches at the base when old. Flowers large and handsome, citron-yellow; the tube short, and hidden in the mammae; the petals 11⁄2 in. long, narrow, pointed, and all directed upwards; stamens numerous, short. Flowering season, early summer. Native country, Mexico. ”

“ Tuberoses are rapidly productive; ten old bulbs having been known to produce one hundred young offshoots in one season. There are many "fine points" in growing Tuberoses, but the instruction here given will enable any one to grow them successfully. ”

“ If our explanation of the causes and mode of formation of tubercle is correct, we must a priori expect to find that a tissue so soft and spongy as the lung, and which is so vascular and subject to such great and sudden alterations of pressure and relaxation, would naturally be the site of the first formation of tubercle. ”

“ In the upper molars the two outer columns or tubercles of the primitive tubercular molar coalesce to form an outer wall, from which proceed two crescentic transverse crests, the connexion between the crests and the wall being slight or imperfect, and the crests themselves sometimes tubercular. Each of the lower molars carries two crescentic ridges. In the earlier forms the cheek-teeth are low-crowned, but in the higher types they become high-crowned. The number of front toes ranges from four to one, and of hind ones from three to one. ”

“ Niven. The root being tuberous, we judge that from a division of the smaller lobes it is to be increased. From the reflexed character, which pervades the whole plant, petals, leaves, parts of fructification, &c. we have adopted our specific title. The cultivation is the same, as for the other tuberous species of this genus. Our figure was made at Clapham in the month of July 1801. [Pg 326]
[Pg 329] [Pg 328] [Pg 327]
PLATE CCXXV.
GNIDIA OPPOSITIFOLIA.
Opposite-leaved Gnidia. ”

“ C. suecicum, Loven.—C. Swediense, Reeve, C. Loveni, Thompson.—Down, Oban, Zetland, 30 to 70 fath., Rr. Oval, equally ribbed.
09. C. aculeatum, Linn.—C. ciliare and parvum (young) .—S. Devon, Mc. Thin, oblique, with thorn-like tubercles; interstices of ribs smooth.
10. C. rusticum, Linn.—C. tuberculatum, Linn.?—Paignton, Torbay, Velvet Strand, Dublin co., Mc. Thick, not oblique, coarsely wrinkled.
11. C. echinatum, Linn.—C. mucronatum, C. spinosum.—Brit. co. generally, mud and sand, 7 to 80 fath. Oblique, wrinkled; hinder tubercles sharp. ”

“ I remember one incident which bears upon this part of the treatise. The gentleman who gave it to me had asked to see my tobacco-pipe; he examined it carefully, and when he came to the little protuberance at the bottom of the bowl he seemed much delighted, and exclaimed that it must be rudimentary. I asked him what he meant.
“Sir,” he answered, “this organ is identical with the rim at the bottom of a cup; it is but another form of the same function. Its purpose must have been to keep the heat of the pipe from marking the table upon which it rested. ”

“ Turfe. A Tale of a Tub, sir, a mere Tale of a Tub.
Lend it no ear, I pray you: the 'squire Tub
Is a fine man, but he is too fine a man,
And has a lady Tub too to his mother;
I'll deal with none of these fine silken Tubs:
John Clay and cloth-breech for my money and daughter. [5]
Here comes another old boy too vor his colours,
Enter Rosin, and his two Boys. ”

“ The end partitions between the tube cells are thin and break away, and lo and behold! we have a long, strong tube with nothing in it but air. Up this tube the sap creeps or down it the sap runs. A great many of these tubes, which are as fine as hairs or much finer in some cases, are needed in a plant. They run all through the stems and out into the leaves. ”

“ A little before hath been given a description of a Tub for a Bath in which any one may sit with his whole body except his head, not only to be washed in sweet warm water, whether medicinal and mineral, but also to sweat in without water, where the vessel is heated by warm vapours, either of sweet waters, or minerals. ”

“ Fish are caught on the largest scale by poisoning the water with the juice of the root of the tuba plant. This is usually practised in the smaller rivers at times of slack water, all the people of a village co-operating. The TUBA plant is cultivated in patches on the PADI fields. Pieces of the roots are cut off without destroying the plants. ”

“ They collect many hundred bundles of the roots of the tuba-plant, and beat them out in their canoes, keeping them wet, and permitting the juice, which has an intoxicating property, to flow into the bottom of their boats. When they have sufficient, they throw it into the water at the mouths of the rivers just at the turn of the flood-tide ”