THE PEPINO. I5I 
resembles somewhat the Bartlett pear, but in taste more 
a muskmelon; but it has besides a most delicious acid, 
entirely wanting in melons and quite peculiarly its own. 
In warm localities this acid does not develop, and this 
fact is the greatest drawback to the success of the fruit. 
The fruit has no seed, as a rule. And in all, I have 
found only a dozen seeds, and those in fruit which came 
from Salama in Guatemala, a place rather too warm to 
produce the finest quality of fruit. The botanical name 
of the pepino is not known to me with eertainty. The 
Same was described by the Franco-Guatemalan botanist, 
Mr. Rousignon, as Solanum Melongena Guatemalense, 
but it is to me quite evident that this solanum is not, 
nor is it closely related to the S. Melongena or eggplant, 
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 writes 
that “‘it has only succeeded in Florida, but has there 
proved of considerable value.” t 
The greatest fault of the pepino appears to be its fail- 
ure to set fruit. Mr. Eisen states that in Guatemala it 
‘‘yields abundantly, in fact enormously, Ioo to 150 fruits 
to a vine 4 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.”*t He recommends that it be shaded if it re- 
fuses to set fruit. Martin Benson, Dade Co., Florida, 
writing to the American Garden,|| says that he has had 
great success with it. ‘‘I counted the fruit on a medium- 
sized plant and found it bore 60 of all sizes, from those 
just set to some nearly matured and weighing upwards of 
*Gard. Monthly, xxix. 84 (1887). 
+ Gard. and Forest, iii. 471 (1890). 
t Orch. and Gard. x. 61 (1888). 
ix. 265 (1888). 
