356 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



was propagated by means of cuttings. It was called "Pepino de la tierra." 

 In 1785, Thouin. a noted French gardener, introduced it into Europe, and 

 four years later Aiton, of the Royal Garden at Kew, England, named it 

 Solatium muricatum. The specific name, muricaie or prickly, was given 

 in reference to the rough or warty character of the sprouts which spring 

 from the root and which are often used for propagation. And now, over 

 a hundred years later, it has found its way to us. 



Mr. Eisen's account of the pepino will be interesting in this connec- 

 tion. " The Central American name of this plant," he writes " is pepino. 

 Under this name it is known everywhere in Central American highlands, 

 and under this name only. But as pepino in Spanjsh also means cucum- 

 ber, it was thought best to give the plant an English name. I suggested 

 the name melon shrub, but through the error or the wisdom of a printer 

 the name was changed to melon pear, which I confess is not very appro- 

 priate, but still no less so than pear guava, alligator pear, rose apple, straw- 

 berry guava, mango apple, custard apple, etc. * * * As to the 

 value of the fruit and the success of it in the States, only time will tell. 

 The fact that I found the plant growing only on the highland where the 

 temperature in the shade seldom reaches 75° Fahr., suggested to me the 

 probability that it would fruit in a more northern latitude. In California 

 it has proved a success in the cooler parts, such as in Los Angles city, and 

 in several places in the coast range, and will undoubtedly fruit in many 

 other localities, where it is not too hot. * * * My friend, the 

 late Mr. J. Grelck of Los Angles, had a plantation of 10,000 pepinos, 

 which grew and bore well and he sold considerable fruit. * * * 

 In pulp and skin the pepino resembles somewhat the Bartlett pear, but in 

 taste more a musk-melon; but it has besides a most delicious acid, entirely 

 wanting in melons and quite peculiarly its own. In warm localities the 

 acid does not develop, and this fact is the greatest drawback to the success 

 of the fruit. The fruit has no seed, as rule. And in all, I have found 

 only a dozen seeds, and those in fruit which came from Salama in Guate- 

 mala, a place rather to warm to produce the finest quality of fruit. The 

 botanical name of the pepino is not known to me with certainty. The 

 same was described by the Franco-Guatemalan botanist, Mr. Rousignon, 

 as Solatium Melongena Guatemalense, but it is to me quite evident that 

 this solanum'is not, nor is it closely related to, the S. Melongena or egg- 

 plant, which latter is a native of central Asia. The pepino is probably a 

 native of the central American highlands, and appears to have been cultivated 

 by the Indians before the conquest by the Spaniards." Last year Mr. 

 Eisen wrote that " it has only succeeded in Florida, but has there proved 

 of considerable value." 



The greatest fault of the pepino appears to be its failure to set fruit. 

 Mr. Eisen states that in Guatemala it " yields abundantly, in fact enorm- 

 ously, 100 to 150 fruits to a vine four feet in diameter being nothing 

 uncommon. I have seen it yield similarly in California, but whenever 

 exposed to too much heat and dryness it is very slow to set fruit." He 

 recommends that it be shaded if it refuses to set fruit. Martin Denson, 

 Dade Co., Florida, writing to the American Gardener, says that he has had 

 great success with it. " I counted the fruit on a medium-size plant and 

 found it bore sixty, of all sizes, from those just set to some nearly matured 

 and weighing upward of a pound. The fruit varies considerably, but aver- 

 ages about the size of a goose egg. The fruit is the most perfectly seed- 

 less of any that I have ever seen, without a trace of a seed. It requires cool 



