254 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



Nightshade Family, all poisonous, as well as bitter 

 to the taste. 



The beauty of its red berries brought the tomato 

 into gardens. Selection of the biggest berries 

 for seed led to the gradual improvement of the 

 species, and the modification of the typical fruit 

 in form, in size, and in color. The earliest toma- 

 toes were the cherry, currant, and pear; small- 

 fruited varieties resembling the edible fruits for 

 which they were named. Two hundred years ago 

 yellow forms were grown. About the beginning 

 of the nineteenth century certain horticulturists 

 began the improvement of the tomato as a garden 

 vegetable, and through their efforts the host of 

 fine varieties has been developed. 



The little cherry variety is worth growing as an 

 ornamental plant, and the cluster-fruited currant 

 tomatoes will cover an unsightly rubbish heap, and 

 make it a thing of beauty along the road. But 

 over the garden wall see the great, .smooth "love 

 apples!" The ridged partitions are firm, juicy 

 flesh, and the seeds are scarce and negligible under 

 the thin skin of the best salad fruit in the world! 

 If you like variety, there are white tomatoes, 

 yellow ones, pink-cheeked ones, as delicately tinted 

 as any peach. If red is the only color for you, 

 there are the scarlet and the crimson varieties, 



