324 NEW JERSEY STATE AGRICULTURAL 



was removed by someone whose precise interest in it may never 

 be known; it probably became an extemporized foot-ball (of small 

 size) to gratify the lust for plunder in an apparently growing 

 class of the uncontrolled. 



A Fruitful Dwarf Hybrid Eggplant. 



The block of hybrid eggplants was as noticeable for the great 

 range in fruitfulness as in any other character. A glance at the 

 table will show that there is, in a general way, a correlation be- 

 tween the size of the plants and their fruitfulness. All the very 

 tall, broad plants that towered above their fellows were, as a rule, 

 nearly or quite barren, while, upon the other extreme, the low 

 plants (underlings) and particularly those of medium size were 

 fruitful. An illustration of the latter is given in Plate XIV., 

 where the lower portion of the plant is seen to bear over fifty 

 fruits. This plant grew by chance in the same hill with one that 

 was fully four times its height and breadth but produced no 

 ripe furits. These "giants" are, as a rule, free bloomers, but 

 for reasons not yet fully understood the fruits fail to form. 

 This is not unlike the condition obtaining with the blend plants of 

 the hybrid in question, which the summer through are covered 

 with hundreds of flowers, but fruits at the close of season are 

 almost entirely absent. 



"American-Chinese" Eggplants; Derivative Hybrids. 



Last year, twenty-four plants of a derivative hybrid of the 

 "American-Chinese" eggplant were grown, that is, a combina- 

 tion of the above hybrid crossed upon by the "Chinese" and ex- 

 pressed by the compound fraction 25//14/25. Seeds from five of 

 these plants were used for the continuation of the hybrid upon the 

 breeding grounds the present season, namely, Nos. i, 5, 7, 10 and 

 14, and they have given a very diverse lot of plants as described 

 in tabular form below: 



