HORTICULTURE AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING. ?5 



II. LYCOPERSIOUM ESOULENTUM Miller, Gard. Diet. (1768). Solanuni 

 Lycopersicum Linn. Sp. PI. ed. i. 150 (1753). Lycopersicum cerasiforme 

 Dunal, Hist. Sol. 113 (1813). L. pyriforme Dunal, 1. c. 112. L. escu- 

 lentum var. cerasiforme Gray, Bot. Cal. i. 538; Syn. Fl. N. Amer. ii. 

 part i. 226. Leaflets ovate-acuminate or lance-ovate, variously cut and 

 parted. 



This, the ordinary tomato, is a native of Peru. The original wild type is 

 "the form designated by botanists as Lycopersicum cerasiforme, ''cherry 

 tomato " of the gardens. The Cherry tomato is still known in a wild state in 

 South America, and it is either indigenous or spontaneous as far north as the 

 lower border of Texas. It is distinguished from the ordinary market tomatoes 

 by its weaker growth and its small, regular, spherical, two-celled fruit. It 

 appears to have been early cultivated in Peru, there developing into some 

 form of the common tomato. The first effect of domestication appears to 

 have been the increasing of the number of cells in the fruit. This increase 

 of cells is due in part to the doubling of the flowers by cultivation, and in 

 part to the growth of adventitious cells after the fruit is partly grown. In 

 some of the large irregular tomatoes I flnd as many as twenty cells. The dark 

 **ring" which appears on the top of overgrown tomatoes marks a rupture, 

 very gradual to be sure, of the cell divisions by the interposition, the forc- 

 ing-in of new cells. These more or less developed new cells are often indi- 

 cated by the excrescences within the "ring." They are very conspicuous in 

 the singular Turk's Cap variety. Fig. 7. The pear-shaped tomatoes, hereto- 

 fore called Lycopersicum pyriforme, are evidently only cultural sports from 

 either the original Cherry tomato or its garden offspring. The pear-shaped 

 and the larger garden tomatoes are unknown in a wild state. The tomato 

 was grown in Europe in 1561,* and probably earlier. In 1583 the fruit was 

 eaten upon the continent "dressed with pepper, salt and oil."t English 

 authors speak of it in 1597]; and 1656 §, but mention it as grown for curiosity 

 only. In 1752 Miller** records its use in England for flavoring soups. In 

 1819 ff four red varieties were grown in Europe: Large Love Apple or 

 Tomate grosse. Small Love Apple or Tomate petite. Pear-shaped Love Apple 

 or Tomate en poire, and the Cherry Love Apple or Tomate cerise. There 

 were two yellow varieties: Large Yellow Love Apple and Cherry Yellow Love 

 Apple or Tomate petite jauue. As early as 1623 J J four sorts were known, 

 the yellow, golden, red, and white. The white variety was even known to 

 Besler in 1613. §§ Tournefort,*** 1700, mentions seven sorts, among them 

 one which was pale red. At the beginning of the nineteenth century three 

 of these old varieties were unknown, the white, golden and pale red. As 

 these are now present in our gardens, we must suppose that they have been 

 re-originated. The cultivation of the tomato for market dates from about 

 1800 in England and about 1830 ia this country. In 1847**** three varieties 

 were grown for the table in the United States, the Large Red, Large Smooth 

 Red, and the Pear-shaped. The Cherry tomato appears to have been grown 



* Anguillaria, Simp., 317. 



t Dodonsei Stirp. Hist, 455. 



JGerarde, Herbal le, 275. 



§ Parkinson, Paradisus. 



** Gardener's Diet. 



+t Hort. Trans. Lond. iii., 347. 



tX Caspar Bauhin, Pinax, 167. 



§§ Hortus Eystitensis. 



***Inst. Rei Herb, i., 1.50. 



**** Buist's Family Kitchen Gardener, 126. 



