THE EGG-PLANT. 293 



an article of cookery. Even on the continent, where 

 the temperature ag;rees better with its habits, it has 

 not so much flavour as the love-apple ; but still it is 

 used in soups and stews, and also eaten sliced and 

 fried with oil or butter. Though the youn<^ plants 

 require to be forwarded in a hot-bed, they may after- 

 wards be made to produce fruit on warm and shel- 

 tered borders ; and both they and the love-apple suc- 

 ceed best when placed against a sunny wall. 



Beside the white egg-plant, (the Solannm me- 

 longena of Linnaeus,) which has been long cultivated 

 as a curiosity, though never used as food, there are 

 several others ; and M. Dunal, in his History of So- 

 lanums, has separated the edible ones, of which he 

 has enumerated four varieties, into the species of So- 

 lanum esculentum. The round and the long variety 

 of the esculent are both cultivated in the garden of 

 the Horticultural Society. The plants, which are an- 

 nuals, are raised to the height of nine or ten inches 

 in the stove, and then planted on the borders in the 

 open air, where they grow to the height of between 

 two and three feet. The fruits of both are large : 

 the round, or rather oval (for that is its proper shape), 

 is four inches long and about three thick. This va- 

 riety is called the Mammoth egg-plant. The long has 

 larger fruit, measuring sometimes as much as eight 

 inches in length. They vary much more in colour than 

 the round, — some of them being streaked with yellow. 

 Other varieties are described as being found in 

 India ; but the seeds that have been sent to this 

 country have produced fruit similar to the kinds now 

 mentioned. 



Various species of the solanum are common in 

 the Levant : and three are particularly described by 

 Dr. Walsh in the Horticultural Transactions. The 

 following is the substance of his communication: — 



Solanum JEthiopicum is the scarlet egg-plant, of 



