NEW YORK EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 355 



PEPINO. — Solarium murioatum. 



Within the last few years a novelty has appeared in the seedsmen's 

 catalogue under the name of pepino, melon pear, melon shrub, and 

 Solarium Guatemalense. Its botanical affinities, as well as its horticultural 

 merits, have been a perplexity. We have now grown the plant for two 

 seasons, in the house and out of doors, and it has proved so interesting and 

 unique that I have prepared this account of it. 



The plant is a strong-growing herb or half shrub in this climate, becom- 

 ing two or three feet high and as many broad. It has a clean and attract- 

 ive foliage, comprised of long-lanceolate, nearly smooth, very dark green, 

 entire leaves. It is a profuse bloomer, the bright blue flowers reminding 

 one of potato flowers. But one fruit sets in each flower cluster, and as 

 this grows the stem elongates until it reaches a length of from four to six 

 inches. The fruit itself is very handsome. As it ripens it assumes a warm 

 yellow color which is overlaid with streaks and veins of violet-purple. 

 These fruits are somewhat egg-shape, conspicuously pointed, and vary 

 from two and a half to three and a half inches in length. If the fruits are 

 still green upon the approach of frost, they may be placed in a cool, dry 

 room where, in the course of two or three weeks, they will take on their 

 handsome color. If carefully handled or wrapped in paper, the fruits will 

 keep until mid-winter or later. The fruit is pleasantly scented, and the 

 flavor of it may be compared to that of a juicy, tender, and somewhat acid 

 egg-plant. It is eaten either raw or cooked. 



Upon the approach of winter we dig up some of the plants and remove 

 them to the conservatory or forcing-house. It is in the capacity of orna- 

 mental plants that they will probably find their greatest usefulness in this 

 latitude. The habit is attractive, the flowers bright and pleasant, and the 

 fruit — if it is obtained — is highly ornamental and curious. The plant will 

 stand a little frost. 



The plant has not fruited freely with us, however, although it blooms 

 profusely. We have endeavored to insure fruiting by hand pollination, 

 but without success. The anthers give very little pollen. Perhaps half 

 the plants succeed in setting two or three fruits apiece. All the fruits 

 which we have raised have been entirely seedless, and this ^appears to be 

 the common experience. The plant must be propagated by cuttings or 

 layers therefore. We obtained our stock from a botanical specimen which 

 I obtained from Florida, and which was not thoroughly dried. 



This plant was introduced into the United States fram Guatemala in 

 1882 by Gustav Eisen, of California. There has been much speculation as 

 to its nativity and its true botanical position. At first it was thought by 

 some to be a variety of the egg-plant, but it is very distinct from that 

 species. But the plant is by no means a novelty to science nor even to 

 cultivation, for it was accurately described and figured so early as 1714 by 

 Eeuillee in his account of travels in Peru. He called it Melongena lauri- 

 folia. At that time the plant bore "several little lenticular seeds, one line 

 broad." It was carefully cultivated in gardens, and the Indians ate it with 

 delight. The taste is described as somewhat like a melon. Eating too 

 heartily of it was supposed to bring on fevers. In Lima it is called pepo. 

 In 1799 it was again described and figured by botanists visiting Peru, 

 Ruiz, and Pavon. They described the fruit as "ovate, pointed, smooth, 

 and shining, white variegated with purple, hanging, of the shape of a 

 lemon." They say that it was much cultivated in Peru, and added that it 



