EXPEIMMEXT STATIOX HKruHT. 489 



As a rule, the fruits were well shaped — that is, oval or medium long — 

 and varied from white to dark purple. In color several were quite ob- 

 jectionable. This variabilit}' is not unexpected, wlien one parent is 

 white and the other purple in color of fruit. There were some very 

 thrifty plants, with almost grass-green fruits, while others had the 

 green and purple so combined as to produce a blotciied and streaked 

 appearance not preferred in the market. 



Seeds were saved from only two of the plants and these were ex- 

 ceptionally fine in many respects, and agreed in having the manv 

 fruits — one seven and the other nine — of a delicate pink color when 

 ready for the market. In shape they were somewhat thicker and 

 shorter than those of the "Long Purple" variety, and altogether very 

 acceptable. The usually firm flesh is of a fine white, resembling 

 that of a snow-apple, and found nowhere else, in our experience, out- 

 side of the "Striped" variety listed as Xo. 21. In other words, the 

 two plants selected show some distinctive characters that it is hoped 

 may l>ecome fixed. 



Cross of "ifew York Improved" upon "Black Snake." 



A block of sixty plants of the cross of the "Xew York Improved" 



18 

 upon "Black Snake" (~2~) gave a very even lot of eggplants. The 



plants were usually very tall, with purple stems and leaves, in this 

 respect resembling the mother parent, and bore a large crop of fruits 

 through a long season. For the sake of a picture, a plant of each 

 13arent and one of the cross were placed in boxes in midseason, and 

 after a few days, and the wilting had been overcome, they were photo- 

 graphed, as shown in the upper half of Plate IX. The male parent, 

 *'Xew York Improved," is upon the left; the mother, "Black Snake," 

 upon the right, and the cross stands between. As these were average 

 plants and all of the same age, something of the resemblances and 

 differences may Ijo distinguished. The fruits were quite uniformly 

 long, with the sides nearly parallel, suggesting unusually large-sized 

 window weights, average ones measuring ten inches long by three and 

 a half inches in diameter. The tall, stiff stems of the plants enabled 

 these long fruits to be held, as a rule, free from the ground, and when 

 touching it was only by the end, thus helping to keep them from the 

 decay that attacks large eggplants lying upon the earth through nearly 

 their whole growth. i\[any of the fruits are cur\-ed somewhat, a char- 

 acteristic that comes naturally from the "Black Snake" parent. 



