THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 155 



consider a fruit that is meat, drink and medicine, all in one, and is 

 likely to prove more beneficial to the human race than a great many 

 things that cost more money, is worthy of more enthusiasm than I am 

 capable of arousing in its favor. 



As a meat it is not, I admit, very substantial, but as a drink what 

 can be more delightfully refreshing ? As a medicine it aids digestion, 

 acts on the liver and kidneys, counteracts the baneful effects of a 

 malarious atmospliere, and possesses, though in a smaller degree, the 

 virtues of calomel, without its injurious qualities ; is a sovereign 

 remedy for dyspepsia and indigestion, and has been used successfully 

 for the cure of diarrhcea. I know nothing equal to it for creating an 

 appetite ; and as, at the same time, it aids in digesting the additional 

 food it induces you to consume, as a matter of course it has a tendency 

 to cover the bones with an extra coating of flesh. Its action too is not 

 that of a temporary stimulant, it does not cease to give an appetite 

 when you cease to make use of it, but if you continue this agreeable 

 medicine while it is in season the benefit will last through the winter. 

 As meat, as drink or as medicine, the idea is not conveyed that it has 

 any merit as a dessert, but as its ardent admirer I should be doing it 

 great injustice did I not place before the readers its claims in that 

 respect, and demand for it a very high rank as an after-dinner relish, 

 possessing a property that I can ascribe to no other fruit, that permits 

 you to eat of it to excess without injurious consequences, for as it acts 

 as a gentle stimulant to the digestive organs, if the stomach be over- 

 loaded it soon passes oft' without any disagreeable effect, or creating 

 any tendency to indigestion. 



If you wish to enjoy this fruit in its greatest perfection eat it fresh 

 off the vines. Take a sweet cake or soda biscuit in your hand, about 

 an hour after dinner, and visit the tomato patch, select one that is not 

 too ripe, and if the eating of that does not give you an appetite for 

 another you have not got the right kind of tomatoes. I have only 

 very recently discovered the right kind myself. Years ago we thought 

 of nothing but the Large Ked and the Large YeUow, but as earliness 

 with me was always a desideratum, I cultivated the Early Eed Frencli, 

 Avhich I think must be identical with Hubbard's Curled Leaf, and 

 liave found it to be the very earliest kind I could procure, and I think 

 it has that distinction still. Its flavor is good, very mucli superior to 

 the Large Red, but it grows so wrinkled and uneven in shape that it 



