Part 36. Herbage Vegetables. Part 2

Fig. 57.-Sweet Potato. Flower-clusters coming from leaf-axils, 1/2. Flower, cut vertically; natural size. Fruit, 2/1. Seed, cut in half vertically to show the folded germ in seed-food (dotted), 4/1. (Original.)

Fig. 58, I. - White Potato (Solatium tuberosum, Nightshade Family, Solanaceoe). Base of plant growing from an old tuber and producing new tubers at the tip of underground branches of the stem. (Baillon.)-Plant a perennial continued from year to year by its tubers; stem erect, about 0.7 m. tall; leaves dull green, hairy; flowers lilac or white; fruit fleshy, green.

Fig. 58, II.-White Potato. Flowering branch. (Baillon.)

Fig. 58, III.-White Potato. A, flower, about natural size. B, flower cut vertically, enlarged. C, stamen, enlarged, showing at the tip of the anthers the pores through which the pollen escapes and falls upon an insect visitor. D, berry, inside view. E, same, cut across. F, seed, side view, and cut vertically to show the curved germ and the seed-food. (Baillon.)

Fig. 59, I.-Jerusalem Artichoke. (Helianthus tuberosus, Sunflower Family, Compositoe). Stem-tubers at base of stem, producing slender roots. (Vilmorin.)-The plant is a perennial herb, often 2 m. in height, closely resembling an ordinary garden sunflower.

Fig. 59, II.-Jerusalem Artichoke. Flower-cluster cut vertically to show arrangement of the perfect florets forming a central mass or "disk," the neutral ray-florets surrounding them, and the protecting bracts or "involucre" looking like a calyx outside of all; the whole growing from the so-called "receptacle" or expanded top, of the floral stalk. (Baillon.)-Such a compact cluster of two kinds of flowers looks like one huge flower, and consequently becomes very attractive to many insects which transfer its pollen advantageously.

Fig. 59, III.-Jerusalem Artichoke. A disk flower enlarged and cut vertically to show the single pistil with two stigmas, long style with nectar glands at base, and one-celled ovary containing a single erect ovule; appearing above the ovary is a tubular corolla dividing into five petal-tips (of which but three are shown), and bearing as many stamens the anthers of which are united into a tube; also appearing above the ovary are slender sepals; and at the base of the flower a chaffy bract from the axil of which the flower arises. A neutral ray-flower having no stamens and only the vestige of a pistil in its rudimentary ovary, but showing a chaffy bract at its base, several sepals, and a much enlarged corolla formed as if by the splitting of a tube nearly to the bottom along its inner side. (Baillon.)

Fig. 59, IV.-Jerusalem Artichoke. Fruit, side view, enlarged. The same cut vertically to show the germ occupying the whole of the seed within. (Baillon.)

Fig. 60.-Onion. (Allium Cepa, Lily Family, Liliaceoe). A, bulb at the beginning of the second year's growth (1/3) cut to show the short stem from which roots spring below, and, above, last year's leaves of which there remain only the thickened bases forming the "coats of the onion" and filled with food now being used up by the new leaves developing from a bud at the center. B, upper part of a leaf cut to show its tubular form. C, plant toward the end of its second year (1/9); the upper (once green) part of the leaves having withered, are replaced by a green hollow stem (shown cut across at D) which bears a cluster of white flowers, and finally the fruit. (A, original; B, C, D redrawn from Reichenbach.)

Fig. 61.-Onion. A, flower, enlarged. B, three stamens, showing their unequal size, and connection at the base. C, young pod. D, the same cut across to show the three compartments and their seeds. E, dry pod split open naturally to release the seeds. (Redrawn from Reichenbach.)

Fig. 62, I.-Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis, Lily Family, Liliaceoe). Mass of roots and fleshy spring shoots, x 1/10 (Nicholson.)-Plant, a perennial, of the seashore, sending up from its matted roots erect shoots which are at first simple and succulent but soon much branched and firm, about 1.5 m. tall, and of a pale green color; flowers greenish yellow; fruit fleshy, bright red.