Hardwicke's science-gossip : an illustrated medium of interchange and gossip for students and lovers of nature . lo-Saxon, and has been in commonuse ever since the Saxon times. Sprit means sprouted,from spreotan, to sprout; and acker is cccer, a field. (Our word acre, which now meansa particular quantity of land, meant originally simplyafield, as in the old name for a grave-yard—GodsAcre, which did not imply that it was an acre in ex-tent, but simply that it was a sacred enclosure.) Itis customary for potatoes to sprout in the springafter being stored up ; and the meaning of acke
Hardwicke's science-gossip : an illustrated medium of interchange and gossip for students and lovers of nature . lo-Saxon, and has been in commonuse ever since the Saxon times. Sprit means sprouted,from spreotan, to sprout; and acker is cccer, a field. (Our word acre, which now meansa particular quantity of land, meant originally simplyafield, as in the old name for a grave-yard—GodsAcre, which did not imply that it was an acre in ex-tent, but simply that it was a sacred enclosure.) Itis customary for potatoes to sprout in the springafter being stored up ; and the meaning of acker- Nov. 1,1S6S.] HARDWICKES SCIENCE -GOSS IP. 24 9 sprit, as applied to them, is that they axe, field-sprit,that is, sprouted even whilst growing in the field. There is another very peculiar abnormal develop-ment often seen in the potato plant, which is alsoknown in Cheshire as ackersprit. The buds in theaxils of the leaves, especially if the haulm be spread-ing on the ground, swell out and form small greenor purple tubers, instead of extending into a small tubers exactly resemble underground. Fig. 227. potatoes, except as regards colour, and in the factthat they often send out bunches of leaves from theeyes. The accompanying drawing represents thisstrange development. It is interesting, because itshows exactly how potatoes are formed, and wha^they are physiologically,—namely, enlarged buds ofunderground shoot s. There are some plants which areextremely in-teresting, as their usual habit is to be ackersprit,and to produce these axillary buds, not as anabnormal development, but as one of the ordinarymeans of propagation. The rare Cardamine bulbiferais an instance, and in gardens the tall and showyLilium bulbiferum. In both these plants great numbers of bulbilli are formed in the axils of theleaves, which drop off when sufficiently ripe, andtake root in the soil, bearing a strange analogy toseeds, but formed without the aid of plants, thou
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