154 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Insects, aud he sends him some specimens and a 

 description of these Insects. Placing one of these 

 Animalcules before a good Microscope, an exceed- 

 ing minute Worm may be discovered hanging with 

 its Tail fixed to an opake Spot in a kind of Bladder, 

 which it has certainly the Power of contracting or 

 distending, and thereby of being suspended at the 

 Surface, or at any Depth it pleases in the Water." 

 This description, although erroneous and imperfect, 

 clearly points to the Noctiluca miliaris. 



We have now given our readers a fair specimen 

 of Microscopic Work in the middle of the 

 eighteenth century; work done by men who held 

 no mean position in the scientific world, and 

 although some of their deductions may cause a 

 smile, we must admit that, considering the in- 

 struments they had to work with, and that the 

 organisms which, revealed themselves to their 

 astonished gaze were imperfectly understood, 

 they did their work well. Everything examined 

 by the " double microscopes," and the higher 

 powers used at that time, were seen as " through 

 a glass darkly," and these simple forms of life were 

 stated to possess fins, feet, eyes, stomachs, &c, 

 organs which existed only in the observer's imagi- 

 nation. 



{To be continued.') 



THE HISTORY OP CULTIVATED VEGE- 

 TABLES. 



No. XVIII— The Tomato, or " Love Apple." 

 ( Lycopersicum, esculentum.) 



THE Tomato, or Love Apple, is the fruit of a 

 herbaceous plant, haviug a hairy stem and 

 rank smell ; belonging to the Nightshade aud Potato 

 family, nat. or. Solanacecc. It is a native of South 

 America, whence it was early introduced by the 

 Spaniards into Europe, and used as a vegetable. 

 The editor of the "Bon Jardinier" (pour l'an 

 1818) describes the Tomato as coming originally 

 from Mexico, but Mr. Sabine, in a paper he read on 

 this plant, before the Horticultural Society in 1S19. 

 said^that there is no authorit y for this statement, 

 for though Hernandez, in his History of Mexico, 

 mentions it, he does not particularly distinguish it 

 as a native of that country. South America being 

 the native country of this vegetable, it was of 

 course unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans ; 

 still, the name Lycopersicum is stated to have 

 originated with Galen, the celebrated physician, who 

 lived about A.D. 131, but it has not been ascer- 

 tained to what plant it was given. The name is 

 derived from lykos, a wolf, and persicon, a peach, 

 implying that the fruit was of such inferior quality 

 as to be fit ouly for the use of that animal. Gesner, 

 an eminent physician and naturalist of Zurich, born 

 in 1516, entered into some investigations of Galen's 



on the subject, but they did not lead to a certainty, 

 and his opinions are criticized by John Bauhin. 

 Anguillara, an Italian, in a work published in 1561, 

 conjectures that the Lycopersicum of Galen was 

 the Tomato, aud ou this authority it is said to have 

 acquired in after-times the name of Lycopersicum 

 Galeni. In the "Adversaria" of Pena and L'Obel, 

 published iu 1570, it is called Poma amoris, Pomum 

 aureum, and Lycopersicum quorundam, in con- 

 formity with Anguillara's conjecture. 



In the "Elemens de Botanique" of Tournefort. 

 1691, we find he adopted Lycopersicum as the name 

 of the genus iu which he placed the particular plant 

 now treated of. Dodoens, a Dutch botanist, de- 

 scribes this plant as grown in his time in the Con- 

 tinental gardens (see his "Pemptades," published 

 at Antwerp, T5S3), and that the fruit was eaten, 

 dressed with pepper, vinegar, and oil. It appears 

 by the "Hortus Keweusis" to have been cultivated 

 in England in the year 1596, but it must have been 

 introduced some years previously to that date, as 

 Gerard mentions it in the early part of his volu- 

 minous "Herbal" (published in 1597), which must 

 have taken some years in compiling and printing : — 

 "This author calls the Tomato Pomum amoris, 

 and says Apples of Love do grow in Spain, Italy, 

 aud such hot countries, from whence myself have 

 received seeds for my garden, where they do increase 

 and prosper." He also tells us that "there hath 

 happeued unto my hands another sort very notable 

 with the former, only the fruit thereof is of a yellow 

 colour." Parkinson, in his " Paradiseis," pub- 

 lished 1656, says "that the Tomato grows naturally 

 in the hot couutries of Barbary and Ethiopia, yet 

 some report them to be first brought from Peru, a 

 province of the West Indies. We only have them 

 for curiosity in our gardens, and for the amorous 

 aspect or beauty of the fruit." There is no record 

 when this vegetable was first employed as an escu- 

 lent in this country, but Miller, in his " Gardener's 

 Dictionary," published in 1/52, after describing 

 them, says they were much used in soups in his 

 time. Being a native of hot climates, the crop very 

 much depends on the season in this country; when 

 it is favourable, large quantities are produced in the 

 open air. As far back as ISIS, being a very fine 

 summer, the growth of this vegetable round 

 London exceeded the demand. Mr. John Wilmot, 

 of Isleworth, states that from a crop of 600 plants 

 that season, he gathered 100 half-sieves. The fruit 

 on several single plants probably weighed -10 lb. ; 

 some of the apples were of an extraordinary size, 

 exceeding 12 inches iu circumference, and weighing 

 12 ounces each. 



It is stated that this vegetable, medicinally con- 

 sidered, is an excellent substitute for calomel, and 

 can be taken when that valuable medicine cannot, 

 and with less injury to the constitution (see Mcin- 

 tosh's "Book of the Garden"). In Prance and 



