If the reader revert to page 6, [Fig. 3], he will see that the progress from a wild to a better root-form is marked by a more fleshy, but still a much forked, or finger-and-toed example. Now as it is held that a clear unbranched outline is essential to a well-formed root crop of every kind, whenever a crop becomes fingered-and-toed, it is looked upon as a disease. It must be understood that we are here speaking of finger-and-toe as distinct from anbury, which latter is a decidedly diseased condition, whether caused by insects or resulting, as some affirm, from a defect in the soil.
The difference in the two states may be briefly summed up as follows:—
| Finger-and-Toe. | Anbury. |
| Root simply branched or forked, with tapering fleshy rootlets; occurs in turnips, parsnips, carrots, and mangold. (See [figs. 1], [2], [3], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10].) | Root infested with irregular nodular protuberances, or with tumours suspended by roots, having very much the aspect of rows of ginger; occurs in turnips alone. (See [fig. 12].) |
The example of a root at [page 6] is a good form of a parsnip progressing from wildness to a better cultivated form. We now offer an engraving ([fig. 5]) of a hollow-crowned crop parsnip, fingered-and-toed, and evidently of a very objectionable form, as it will be seen on comparison how nearly alike are [figs. 3] and [5].
Fig. 5.—Finger-and-toed degenerate Parsnip. Half nat. size.
Now, as every degenerate crop of parsnips will be found to offer a large proportion of such roots as [fig. 5], we seem bound to conclude that, inasmuch as our [fig. 3] represents a root in progress towards ennobling, so [fig. 5] is that of a root declining to its level,—in other words, degenerating; seed, therefore, that produces such roots can only come from a poor stock.
Our next fig. ([6]) is of a parsnip that had prematurely flowered. Sending up flowered stems the first year, in the case of a biennial, can only be looked upon as an instance of degeneracy. Plants that “run,” as it is termed, being comparatively useless, the best use, indeed, that can be made of them being that of pulling them up and giving them to the pigs.