I'S 
larger. Of this species there are a great many different kinds, eacli 
having its distinct name. They are .of different colors— green, red, 
yellow, white and purple. The fruit is delicious, "and in the interior 
of Mexico forms one of the principal means of sustenance for the 
inhabitants. From the purple tuna a liquid is made called colonche, 
and a sort of sweet cheese {queso de tuna). There is a small red 
tuna'growing wild in the mountains near to Zacatecas, called car- 
dona, which is highly prized on account of its fine flavor and diges- 
tible qualities, and several cartloads of which are sold daily in Zaca- 
tecas. They are sold at six cents for four dozen. Besides serving 
as food for men and beasts its leaves form the food of the cochineal 
insect. 
The Tomato. — *' In the- United States its introduction preceded 
by many years its use as we at present know it. It is said to have 
reached Philadelphia from St. Domingo in 1798, but not to have 
been sold in the markets until 1829. It was used as an article of 
food in New Orleans in 1812. The first notice of it in American 
gardens was apparently by Jefferson, who notes it in Virginia gardens 
in 1781. It was introduced into Salem, Mass., about 1802, by an 
Italian, but he found it difficult to persuade people even to taste the 
fruit. Among American writers on gardening, McMahon, 1806, 
mentions the tomato, but no varieties, as 'in much esteem for culin- 
ary purposes'; Gardiner and Hepburn, 1818, say: * make excellent 
pickles'; Fessenden, 1828, quotes from Loudon' only; Bridgeman, 
1832, says, * much cultivated for its fruits in soups and sauces.' 
They were first grown in Western New York in 1825, the seed from 
Virginia, and in 1830 were not produced by the vegetable gardeners 
about Albany; yet directions for cultivating this fruit appeared in 
Thorburn's Gardeners' Kalendar, 2d. edit., New York, 181 7. Buist 
writes that as an esculent plant in 1828-29 the tomato was almost 
detested, yet in ten years more every variety of pill and panacea was 
•extract of tomato.' Mr. T. S. Gold, Secretary of the Connecticut 
Board of Agriculture writes me that * we raised our first tomatoes 
about 1832, only as a curiosity, made no use of them though we had 
heard that the French ate them. They were called love-apples. 
D. J. Browne, 1854, describes six varieties and says: 'the tomato 
until within the last twenty years was almost wholly unknown in this 
country as an esculent vegetable.' In 1835 they were sold by the 
dozen in Quincy Market, Boston. In the Maine Farmer, Oct. i6th, 
18.35, in an editorial on tomatoes, they are said to be cultivated m 
gardens in Maine, and to be * a useful article of diet, and should be 
found on every man's table.' In a local lecture in one of the Western 
colleges about this time, a Dr. Bennett refers to the tomato or Jeru- 
salem apple as being found in the markets in great abundance, and 
m the New York Farmer of this period one person is mentioned as 
having planted a large quantity for the purpose of making sauce. 
1844 the tomato was now acquiring that popularity which makes it so 
indispensable at present, writes R. Manning." From this it appears 
"that the esculent use of the tomato in America does not antedate 
the present century, and only became general about 1835 to 1840. 
Dr. E. L, Sturtevant, in Amer. Naturalist. 
In 
