Halsted: Colors in Vegetable Fruits 



21 



He also found that the hairiness of the 

 skin was a very variable character and 

 this tends to modify the color as it 

 appears to the eye. 



In this connection the unusual group 

 of "peach" tomatoes is instanced as a 

 special case in Vv^hich besides hairs the 

 outer surface, instead of being smooth, 

 is papillate, each cell having a convex 

 wall. The outward appearance of the 

 "peach" is quite unusual, due to the 

 reduction of epidermal color-intensity 

 resulting from peculiarity of structure 

 and the hairy coating from which it 

 gets its common name. Furthermore, 

 Dr. Groth found "The scraped skin of 

 the orange-red ' peach ' when scraped on 

 white paper, appears lighter than the 

 skin of other orange-red fruits." 



Perhaps enough has been given to 

 establish the belief that with tomatoes 

 the subject of color inheritance is one 

 that is not easily and fully settled by 

 any general rule. The color character, 

 as viewed from the standpoint of a 

 critical student of tints and shades, will 

 become somewhat a varietal one, de- 

 pending upon many factors besides the 

 orange color of the skin and the pink 

 and lemon color of the flesh. The 

 amount of substance colored, whether 

 flesh or skin, will be a modifier; thus a 

 flabby fruit with large air-cavities will 

 be dull as compared with the kind with 

 solid flesh. The smooth skin of the 

 "currant" gives a bright appearance 

 while the ' ' peach ' ' with the same shade 

 of flesh will be dull indeed. 



EGGPLANTS 



The eggplants of the garden, while in 

 many ways closely related to the 

 tomato, have some additional factors 

 for fruit color. The most common 

 kinds have purple fruits, but among 

 these there are different intensities of 

 this color that may be termed varietal. 

 Thus the Black Beauty is unlike the 

 Dwarf Purple. Furthermore there are 

 two classes as regards the influence of 

 the sun; namely, in one the purple 

 develops under the thick calyx, while 

 in the other it seems confined to the 

 surface that is exteriorally exposed. 

 Furthermore the purple color in the 

 fruit disappears to a large extent, if not 



totally, as the fruit matures and is re- 

 placed by a dull yellow that is compara- 

 ble with that of the mature tomato or 

 pepper, the latter fruit in particular 

 often showing the purple on the way to 

 the final yellow or red. The opposite 

 to the purple is the absence of color, as 

 illustrated in the various white kinds. 



Among those without the purple color 

 are the green fruits when of marketable 

 size. The difference between these 

 green and the white fruits is more than 

 skin deep, that is, they are more or less 

 green throughout the whole flesh of the 

 fruit, while the white ones have little or 

 no green in the flesh when taken mature, 

 but instead are of an ivory-white 

 throughout. 



As a basis for calculations in the 

 breeding of the eggplant the following 

 group may be given, founded upon color 

 of flesh and skin; namely, green flesh, 

 white flesh, purple skin, colorless skin. 

 This yields the following combinations: 

 (1) green-purple, (2) white-purple, 

 (3) green-colorless, (4) white-colorless. 

 When the first two are bred together, 

 the Fi plants will bear only purple fruits 

 with green flesh, but in F2 a quarter of 

 the plants will produce fruits with white 

 flesh and these, under isolation, will 

 remain constant to these fruit colors, 

 while the green-purple group of plants 

 will contain one-third of pure green- 

 purple and two-thirds that represent the 

 Fi. 



When a green-purple kind is bred with 

 a white-colorless sort the two pairs of 

 allelomorphs are represented and there 

 result the combinations that are shown 

 for tomatoes in Table I, with this 

 difference, that only three of the four 

 types are noted at a glance, because the 

 deep purple of the skin obscures that of 

 the flesh beneath. In other words the 

 deep purple fruit may have either white 

 or green flesh, and the decision calls for 

 an examination under the calyx or of 

 the flesh itself. 



SOME UNUSUAL SORTS 



Aside from the four types above men- 

 tioned there are others, as, for example, 

 the striped-fruited group; and this, 

 when bred with a white sort, gives 

 slightly striped fruits in the Fi ; and when 



