MORPHOLOGICAL ABNORMALITIES IN THE TOMATO. 183 



it is only of comparatively recent years that it has attained 

 popularity. The Love-apple, as it used to be called, was cultivated 

 more as an object of ornament and curiosity than as an edible 

 fruit. 



The adventitious developments are no doubt due to the methods 

 adopted by the gardener in cultivation. It is more than likely 

 that adventitious growths are as rare in the Tomato in its wild 

 state as in any other plant, and it is certainly the case that plants 

 left to themselves exhibit little or no abnormality. The Tomato 

 under glass is a rampant grower, and the first great principle in 

 its successful culture is pruniug. 



The best plants are produced from seed, although it will 

 '^ strike " readily from the " hard " cuttings which are sometimes 

 produced from the base of the stem. The successful cultivator 

 confines the plant strictly to one stem, the lateral shoots being 

 removed as soon as they make their appearance. In addition to 

 this, after the first bunch of fruit is set, most gardeners shorten 

 the leaves by half their length. 



During what Yines terms the " grand period of growth in 

 length " the exuberance of the plant is enormous. The excessive 

 vitality, " cabined, cribbed, confined " by the severe pruning, 

 finds vent in many ways, and the efiect of the drastic treatment 

 to which the plants are subjected is somewhat remarkable. 



A good working hypothesis is found in the well-known theory 

 originally propounded by Goethe, that all the organs of the higher 

 plants can be referred back to a very small number of funda- 

 mental forms ; that, in fact, every organ is either axial or foliar, 

 or is compounded of these two. 



In most plants the respective functions of the stem and leaves 

 are as well defined as are the external forms of these organs. 

 Exceptions are found in Cacti, Kuscus, tfcc, where the stem 

 performs the functions of the leaves ; and in Bryophyllum and 

 others, where the leaf, by producing buds, undertakes the 

 functions of the axis. The artificial propagation of the plant from 

 the leaf is a common operation performed on Begonias and other 

 plants, but the most remarkable example of the transformation of 

 the leaf into an axis of growth is displayed by the Tomato. The 

 leaf is interruptedly pinnate, the proportion of inferior to superior 

 pinnae varying considerably in difi'erent varieties, but generally 



