304 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



colour deepening into violet-purple, and the dimensions 

 reaching to eight inches in length, by over two inches in 

 diameter. Imported from France, it is these which we 

 chiefly see in the shops and market-places, sometimes 

 under the Indian name of Brinjals. India is probably 

 the native country of the Melongena, but the plant is 

 now so widely naturalized in the tropics, both of the 

 east and the west, that doubt still exists. It is now 

 naturalized also in the south of Europe. Aubergines 

 may be used in almost as many different ways as the 

 tomato, and in merit are scarcely inferior. A very 

 capital way of dealing with them, little known, is to 

 scoop out the pulp by means of an opening made at 

 one end, season and otherwise enrich it, then replace 

 in the leathery shell or skin, and bake in a brisk oven 

 with a small quantity of butter. 



The "CAPE -GOOSEBERRY" (Phy satis Peruviana) is 

 that very pleasing little fruit of the greenhouse and cool 

 vinery, a yellow berry enclosed in a cage, which at 

 once, except in colour, recalls the still more interesting 

 scarlet though not eatable alkekengi. Like the tomatos, 

 it is South American by birthright, the common English 

 name coming of its popularity at the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Few kinds of fruit make a nicer tart : it is excellent also 

 for preserving, as certified by the offer in some of the 

 metropolitan shops of "Cape-gooseberry jam." The 

 stature of the plant is about a yard : it is downy in every 

 part, has ovate leaves, and pretty yellowish flowers an 

 inch across, the centre with five large purple spots. 



