Cultivation of the Purple Egg Plant. 99 



cultivated as an ornamental green-house plant. It grows about two 

 feet high, with somewhat pendent branches ; the flowers are of a 

 pale violet color, and are followed by a large berry, or fruit, of an 

 oval shape and clear white color, very much resembling, when not 

 overgrown, a hen's egg, 



Tiie original species, the white, is seldom made use of, but the 

 purple variety is, by the French and Italian cooks, generally used in 

 stews and soups ; and dressed in different methods, it forms a very 

 delicate dish. In the East and West Indies it is used in hke man- 

 ner, and is also cultivated for the general purposes of the love-apple. 



We have raised specimens of the purple, which have weighed be- 

 tween three and four pounds. We observed at the Horticultural 

 Society's exhibition last fall, some plants in pots bearing one or two 

 fruits of very large size ; and we have occasionally seen them in our 

 markets, of fair quality ; they seem to have been almost wholly un- 

 known as a culinary vegetable, and have generally been sold at a 

 price, which would not pay the marketer for his trouble in bringing 

 them to the city. From this cause, their cultivation has been neg- 

 lected, and they are now seldom to be found. Within the two past 

 years, however, we have known some, in the early part of the season, 

 to command a good price, and we doubt not but in a few years they 

 will be as eagerly sought after as the Tomato. 



Our New England summers are not of sufficient length to bring to 

 perfection this vegetable, unless the seeds are planted in a hot-bed 

 in the month of iMarch, and the plants transplanted to the open gar- 

 den in May or June. Those persons, therefore, who have not a hot- 

 ted, cannot expect to raise them, unless they procure the plants 

 from some place where plenty of seedings are grown. 



Our method of cultivation was as follows : — In the month of 

 March, we sowed the seeds in a pot filled with light rich soil, and 

 placed it in a hot-bed, the minimum temperature of which was about 

 seventy-five degrees ; as soon as the plants were up, we placed them 

 where they would receive the influence of the air admitted into the 

 bed, to prevent their drawing up weakly ; for if this is not attended 

 to, the young seedings are invariably destroyed. As soon as they 

 threw out two rough leaves, we potted them off singly into pots, 

 (No. 2,) in the same soil as the seeds were planted. Water was 

 given rather sparingly at first to prevent dampness ; but as soon as 

 the plants showed signs of growing, it was given more freely. The 

 heat of the bed was not suffered to decline, as this would check them 

 at once. In four or five weeks they were again repotted, using pots 

 of the 4th size. In these they remained till May, when they were 

 turned out in the garden. The plants should be set about two and 

 a half feet apart each way, if planted in a bed ; but we have grown 

 them on the edges of walks and flower borders, where we not only 

 found them to grow luxuriantly, but were quite an ornament; three 

 or four of their large dark purple fruit, on each plant, having a very 

 5howy appearance. 



