592 THE TOMATO, THE EGO-PLANT, AND THE CAPSICUM. 



wall, or any other situation where it will enjoy the full influence 

 reflected sun heat, about the middle or end of May, according to the 

 situation and the season. The vacant spaces between fruit trees will 

 answer for this purpose ; or a temporary wall of boards, five feet high, 

 may be erected ; or, in warm situations, they may be trained on a 

 steep bank, raised artificially to an angle of 45, and covered with flat 

 tiles. The plants have a very beautiful effect on an espalier ; but they 

 only ripen their fruit there in the warmest summers. The fruit will 

 be increased in size, and its maturity accelerated, by stopping every 

 shoot after it has produced one cluster of fruit, and by judiciously 

 thinning the leaves. The fruit ripens between August and October, 

 and if hung up in a dry airy part of the summer fruit-room, it 

 will continue fit for use till the end of November. One ripe fruit 

 reserved for seed will contain enough for any garden whatever : cleanse 

 the seeds from the pulp, dry them thoroughly, and preserve them in 

 paper till next spring. 



The Egg-plant, Mad Apple, or Jew's Apple (Solanum Melongena) 

 is an erect branchy annual, a native of Africa, and cultivated in British 

 gardens for its fruit, partly as an ornament, and partly for its uses in 

 cookery. The plant grows about two feet high ; the fruit is oval, and 

 about the size of a hen's egg, or larger when cultivated with extra- 

 ordinary care. There are several varieties, such as the White, Black, 

 Golden-striped, and Chinese Giants of different colours. The fruits are 

 of different sizes as well as colours, and great quantities of them are 

 used in Paris and other Continental cities. They are divided lengthways, 

 and fried in oil with pepper, salt, and the crumbs of toasted bread, and 

 in various other ways which are detailed at length in French cookery 

 books. In the garden the plant receives the same treatment as the 

 tomato, though it requires a greater degree of heat to ripen it, and 

 should therefore always be trained against a south wall. The fruit 

 hung up will keep through the winter, and therefore the seed need 

 not be taken out till wanted for sowing. 



The Capsicum, or Bird pepper (Capsicum, L.) : There are three or 

 more species in cultivation for their fruit, natives of tropical climates; 

 the annual capsicum, the Spanish, or Guinea pepper (C. amiuum, L.), 

 a native of South America, growing in our stoves about two feet high, 

 and producing pods, long or short, round, long, or cherry-shaped, and 

 red or yellow, in the autumn of the same year in which the seed is 

 sown ; the Bell pepper (C. grossum, W.), a biennial, a native of India, 

 producing large red or yellow berries, which remain on through the 

 winter ; the Bird pepper (C. baccatum, L.), and the Chilies or Cayenne 

 pepper (C. frutescens, L.). To these the French have lately added 

 another variety, the Tomato capsicum (Piment Tomate,Fr.),the fruit of 

 which is round, yellow, furrowed, twisted like the tomato, and in a 

 green state so mild as to be eaten sliced in salad. This is also the 

 case with the Bullock's-heart variety of the common capsicum, the 

 C. cordiforme of Miller. In the native countries of these plants there 

 are numerous varieties which are cultivated for using green, and for 

 pickling, and for making the well-known cayenne pepper, which is 



