The Potato, The

This is an expanded, completely rewritten and updated new edition of Professor Hawkes' definitive botany of the tuber-bearing solanums (potatoes), last revised in 1963. Professor Hawkes is the leading world authority on the botany, genetics, breeding and cultivation of the potato and this work encapsulates a lifetime's distinguished botanical work. There are descriptions of over 220 species of wild and cultivated potato, which give full details of taxonomy, characteristics and range. Introductory chapters cover the history of the species, their breeding and genetics, cytology and evolution, econology and geographical distribution and a detailed taxonomic listing. This is an essential reference work for all scientists concerned with this major food crop, including botanists, geneticists, plant breeders, agriculturalists, biochemists and phytopathologists.