CHAPTER XVIII 



SOLAN ACEAE — Continued 



LYCOPERSICUM ESCULENTUM 



THE tomato is a native of South and Central America and prob- 

 ably had been cultivated there by the native population long 

 before its introduction into southern Europe. It attained great 

 favor there and w^as introduced into the United States in the latter 

 part of the eighteenth century. At present, it is grown exten- 

 sively throughout the United States for home, market-garden, and 

 canning purposes. In addition to its commercial uses, the tomato 

 plant might be regarded as the "guinea pig" of the plant kingdom, 

 since it has been widely used for experimental purposes in problems 

 of plant physiology, pathology, and genetics, owing to the ease 

 with which it may be propagated, and its hardiness and adapt- 

 ability to a wide range of environmental conditions. 



Bailey (x) recognizes two species, Lycopersicum esculentum 

 Mill., and L. pimpinellifolium Dunal; but the latter, known as 

 the currant tomato, is not widely used It has a spreading habit, 

 small leaves, flowers arranged in long racemes, and a small two- 

 loculed berry about ,?^ to 3^^ inch in diameter. Five botanical 

 varieties of L. esculentum are listed by Bailey (3), and there is a 

 large number of commercial varieties. Boswell and others (4), in 

 cooperation with members of the seed trade, canners, and market- 

 gardeners, have described the nine most widely used American 

 varieties in an attempt to eliminate some of the confusion that 

 exists with respect to their characteristics. They point out that 

 the vegetative habit is so variable and susceptible to modification 

 on the basis of response to environmental conditions that it is 

 difficult to give an exact description of any of the leading varieties 

 in terms of actual measurements. For this reason, the following 

 account is a generalized one designed to present the characters 

 that are important in connection with structural and anatomical 

 studies rather than to describe the specific characteristics of any 

 commercial type. 



550 



