HORTICULTURE AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 8& 



small, berry-like fruits of the Cranberry to the delicate and slender ones of 

 the Red Cluster, the monstrous and irregular Bell varieties, and the singular 

 tomato-shaped sorts, there is a variation so great that one cannot avoid seeking 

 for diiferent specific origins for each type. Yet closer sttidy reveals the fact 

 that nearly every form is connected with others by an almost complete series 

 of gradations. The variety which is the least connected with others is the 

 Eed Cluster. (Fig. 12.) Four reputed species of pepper are said to enter 

 into our garden varieties — Capsicum annuum, C. frutescens, C. grossnm, and 

 C. cerasiforme. I am entirely unable, however, to distinguish these species 

 in the garden varieties which we have grown, and must therefore for the 

 present refer them all to Capsicum annuum. As an instance of the varia- 

 tion in peppers, I cite the following: A plant of the large Bell or Bull 

 Nose last year produced some fruits which were long, regular and slender, 

 much like an over-grown Cayenne. If these fruits had grown on different 

 plants they would have been called, unhesitatingly, distinct varieties. They 

 were entirely uulike in form. Seeds were saved, and this year planted, from 

 a well-formed fruit of each sort. The seeds from the Cayenne-like fruit 

 reproduced their parent very closely, but the seeds from the typical Bell pro- 

 duced plants which gave fruits of various shapes. The greater number of 

 the fruits from this latter seeding were the same as the Cayenne-like fruits 

 of the former seeding, while some plants gave true Bell peppers. This experi- 

 ment proves how easy a matter it is to produce new varieties and how seeds 

 may become " mixed " without any fault of the seedsman. Half the vari- 

 eties which we grew this year presented one or more untrue plants. It is 

 reasonable to suppose that at least some of these mixed sorts were the pro- 

 ducts of unmixed varieties. This experiment also proves that the so-called 

 species of pepper are not widely separated. The Cayenne is usually referred 

 to Capsicum frutescens and the Bell to C. grossum, yet the distinctive forms 

 of each are produced on the same plant and are perpetuated by its seeds. 

 The reversion of the offspring of the Bell to the Cayenne-like type suggests 

 the origin of the Bell from the slender sorts, the same as the large market 

 tomato must have sprung from the cherry and plum sorts. The critical 

 observer of the variations in peppers will not need the results of this simple 

 experiment to convince him that the monstrous Bell varieties are but develop- 

 ments from smaller and more pointed sorts. The leaves and the habits * of 

 the plants are also various between the different varieties. How much 

 hybridization has had to do with all this variation, it is, of course, impossible 

 to determine. 



I. Cherry Peppers. — Fruit mostly globular and regular, berry-like, 

 S7nall (one inch or less in diameter). 



1. Cranberry. {Airelle rouge of Vilmorin. See No. 4). Plant 

 diffuse, a foot high ; leaves ovate (blade three-fourths of an 

 inch wide by one and half inches long); fruits erect, very small 

 (one-half inch or less in diameter), brigh red. — From Peter 

 Henderson & Co. One plant, September 3, bore three ripe 

 fruits, and another bore one. 



2. Eed Cherry. {Cerise oi Vilmorin.) Plant more upright than 

 the last ; fruits mostly drooping, sometimes flattened on the 

 end, three-fourths of an inch in diameter, becoming black, then 

 bright red. From Joseph Breck and Son, and Vilmorin- 



* See Figs. 12 and 13. 



12 



