MORPHOLOGICAL ABNORMALITIES IN THE TOMATO, 183 
it is only of comparatively recent years that it has attained 
popularity. The Love-apple, as it used to be called, was cultivated 
more as an object of ornament and curiosity than as an edible 
_ fruit. 

The adventitious developments are no doubt due to the methods 
adopted by the gardener in cultivation. It is more than likely 
that adventitious growths are as rare in the Tomato in its wild 
state as in any other plant, and it is certainly the case that plants 
left to themselves exhibit little or no abnormality. The Tomato 
under glass is a rampant grower, and the first great principle in 
its successful culture is pruning. 
The best plants are produced from seed, although it will 
“ strike” readily from the “ hard” cuttings which are sometimes 
produced from the base of the stem, The successful cultivator 
confines the plant strictly to one stem, the lateral shoots being 
removed as soon as they make their appearance. In addition to 
this, after the first bunch of fruit is set, most gardeners shorten 
the leaves by half their length. 
During what Vines terms the “grand period of growth in 
length ” the exuberance of the plant is enormous. The excessive 
vitality, “cabined, cribbed, confined” by the severe pruning, 
finds vent in many ways, and the effect of the drastic treatment 
to which the plants are subjected is somewhat remarkable. 
A good working hypothesis is found in the well-known theory 
originally propounded by Goethe, that all the organs of the higher 
plants can be referred back to a very small number of funda- 
mental forms ; that, in fact, every organ is either axial or foliar, 
or is compounded of these two. 
In most plants the respective functions of the stem and leaves 
are as well defined as are the external forms of these organs. 
Exceptions are found in Cacti, Ruscus, &c., where the stem 
performs the functions of the leaves; and in Bryophyllum and 
others, where the leaf, by producing buds, undertakes the 
functions of the axis. The artificial propagation of the plant from 
the leaf is a common operation performed on Begonias and other 
plants, but the most remarkable example of the transformation of 
the leaf into an axis of growth is displayed by the Tomato. The 
leaf is interruptedly pinnate, the proportion of inferior to superior 
pinne varying considerably in different varieties, but generally 
