352 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



These figures are full of significance. They show that the staminate, or 

 male, flowers are more numerous in each case than the pistillate, or fertile, 

 flowers, ranging from 6 to 24 times as many. They show that the pistil- 

 late flowers make their appearance later in the season — from five days in 

 the cucumber to thirty days in one of the musk-melons. They also show 

 that as a rule the staminate flowers continue to appear later in fall than 

 the pistillate. Musk-melon No. 1 was a weaker plant than the others, and 

 it began to fail by the middle of September. It is, therefore, instructive 

 to observe that in this plant the proportion of pistillate flowers was the 

 smallest, and that they appeared later and ceased earlier than the other 

 plants. And the figures illustrate the common observation that the cucum- 

 ber is more precocious than the melons. The figures show forcibly the 

 necessity of starting melons early in our short seasons. 



L. H. Bailey. 



PHYSALIS,* OR HUSK TOMATO. 



Under the name of husk tomato, strawberry tomato, winter cherry, and 

 ground cherry, species of physalis have come into prominent notice during 

 the last few years. The genus physalis is somewhat allied to the tomatoes 

 and red peppers, and like most other groups of the family it is puzzling to 

 botanists. There are a number of native species of physalis, one or two of 

 which are well known in some parts of the country as ground cherry, and 

 the fruits of which are esteemed for preserves. In fact, one of these native 

 plants (physalis pubescens) is the same species as the commonest husk 

 tomato of the gardens, although the cultivated form probably came first 

 from some tropical or sub-tropical country. This species is very widely 

 distributed. There has been no recent attempt to distinguish the species 

 and varieties of our culivated physalises, and knowledge of them is greatly 

 confused. We have grown seven species, only three of which need be dis- 

 cussed here, as they are the only ones which appear to have been introduced 

 into cultivation as fruit-bearing plants. These three are as follows: 



1. physalis pubescens. This is the common strawberry tomato of 

 seedsmen (the Erdbeer tomato of the Germans), the dwarf cape gooseberry, 

 golden husk tomato, and the improved ground cherry (of Childs). It is a 

 low plant, trailing flatly upon the ground, or sometimes ascending to the 

 height of a foot. The leaves are rather thin and nearly smooth, more or 

 less regularly and prominently notched with front teeth. Flowers small 

 (f in. or less long), bell-shape, the limb or border erect and whitish-yel- 

 low, the throat marked with five large brown spots; anthers yellow. The 

 husk is smooth or nearly so, thin and paper-like, prominently 5 -angled 

 and somewat larger than the small, yellow, sweetish, and not glutinous 

 fruit. Fig. 4 is an excellent portrait of this species. The detached fruits 

 are natural size, although the fruit is sometimes larger than these. The 

 plant is very prolific, and the fruits are considerably earlier than in the 

 other species. When ripe, the fruits fall, and if the season is ordinarily 

 dry they will often keep in good condition upon the ground for three or 

 four weeks. The fruits will keep nearly all winter if put away in the husks 



♦Pronounced Fiss-a~lis. 



