EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT. 309 



titions between the locules, (c) the connections between the lat- 

 ter and the seeds, botanically known as the placentae. The second 

 primary group is well defined and does not admit of further divis- 

 ion, but is subject to remarkable variations in the evolution of 

 the modern, highly modified fruits. This pulp is the soft p^rt 

 that surrounds the seeds and may be easily squeezed out of the 

 locules along with their contents, namely, the seeds which con- 

 stitute the third main division of the fruit. 



The rind, the division walls and the placentae, taken collectively 

 as the flesh of the tomato, is the portion sought for by the house- 

 wife. A chief difi^erence between the solid and desirable fruit 

 and the flabby one is the large percentage of the flesh. Compare, 

 for example, the fruits as shown in slice view in the row at the 

 right and the one at the left in Plate X. ; the latter are, of course, 

 of larger size, and represent the type that is sought for in 

 present-day tomatoes. Instead of the tAvo or three large locules 

 that are characteristic, presumably, of the fruits of the species in 

 its wild state, the seed-cavities are numerous, each one com- 

 paratively small, and surrounded with thick, firm partitions, bear- 

 ing uniformly the rich color of the variety, and having no hard 

 green central core so often met with in the older types of toma- 

 toes. The beauty of the slices of the highly-bred fruits, as they 

 are served, bespeak a great future for this modern accession to 

 the vegetable garden. A large slice, displaying sufficient firmness 

 to handle well, with its highly-colored flesh free from all 

 semblance of hard, green spots, and interspersed through- 

 out from center to circumference with many small locules, 

 each with one or but few seeds, is an object that is tempt- 

 ing in the extreme. Should some of the slices be cherry red, and 

 others orange-yellow, and distinguishable in the high flavor of 

 their contents, the dish becomes all the more attractive. The sub- 

 ject deserves the use of colored plates to do feeble justice to the 

 richness of hues of these high reaches of the art of the tomato 

 breeder. 



But it is not only the contents of the fruits that are in contrast 

 between the samples upon the extreme right and left hand in the 

 plate. It goes without saying that here, as elsewhere, there is a 

 size below which it is not acceptable, and the imiversal verdict 



