444 



SOLANACE^E. II. LYCOPERSICUM. III. PELTANTHERA. IV. CAPSICUM. 



disagreeable smell. The flowers appear in bunches in July and 

 August. The fruit is smooth, depressed at both ends, and fur- 

 rowed on the sides ; it varies in size, but seldom exceeds that of 

 an ordinary golden-pippin apple. 



Use. When ripe, the fruit, which has an acid flavour, is put 

 in soups and sauces, and the juice is preserved for winter use, 

 like ketchup ; it is also used in confectionary, as a preserve, and 

 when green as a pickle. Though a good deal used in England 

 in soups, and as a principal ingredient in a well-known sauce 

 for mutton, yet our estimation and uses of the fruit are nothing 

 to those of the French and Italians, and especially the latter. 

 Near Rome and Naples whole fields are covered with it, and 

 scarcely a dinner is served up in which it does not in some way 

 or other form a part. 



Varieties. Those in general cultivation are called, the large, 

 and small, cherry and pear-shaped red, and the large and 

 small, or cherry-shaped yellow. The first sort is in most esti- 

 mation for domestic purposes, and should be cultivated accord- 

 ingly, while a few plants of the other kinds may be raised for 

 variety of the fruit. 



Propagation and Culture. The plants must be raised and 

 forwarded in a hot-bed, under glass from about the vernal equi- 

 nox till May. Sow in any general hot-bed about the end of 

 March, or beginning or middle of April, and as to quantity of 

 seed one ounce will produce 60 plants. As soon as the plants 

 are about 2 inches high, if they are immediately pricked out 

 into another hot-bed, or into that where raised, or singly into 

 small pots placed in the hot-bed, they will grow more stocky, 

 and can be more successfully transplanted. About the middle 

 or end of May transplant them each with a ball of earth into a 

 south border, to have the full sun, that the fruit may ripen to 

 perfection. Some may be planted close to a south wall, if 

 vacant spaces can be had ; but as they draw the ground 

 exceedingly, do not set them near choice-fruit trees. Give 

 water. During the first week, or fortnight, if the nights be cold, 

 defend them with hand-glasses, or by inverting a large garden 

 pot over Ach plant, or transplant upon holes filled with hot 

 dung, earthed to 6 inches depth, and cover with hand-glasses. 

 When they begin to run train them to stakes, or, where planted 

 near a wall or pales, nail up the branches. J. Wilmot plants at 

 the foot of a bed sloping steeply to the south, and trains the 

 stems and branches on it by pegging them down ; they fre- 

 quently strike root at the joints ; he tops them as soon as their 

 branches meet, clears off" all the lateral shoots, and thins the 

 leaves, by which the fruit is exposed, and well ripened. In the 

 fine season of 1818 each plant so treated produced on an ave- 

 rage twenty pounds weight of fruit. The fruit begins to ripen 

 in August ; gathered in October, and hung up in bunches in any 

 dry apartment it will continue good for use in November. 



To save Seed. " Gather some of the best ripe fruit in 

 autumn, clear out the seed, wash and cleanse it from the pulp, 

 and dry it thoroughly, then put it up in papers or bags for use 

 next spring." Abercrombie. 



Var.$; berries pale red. . H. L. fructu e rubro palles- 

 cente, Tourn. inst. p. 150. 



Var. y ; berries yellow. 0. H. L. fructu luteo, Tourn. 1. c. 



Var. 8 ; berries white. Q. H. L. fructu albo, Tourn. 1. c. 



Esculent, or Common Love Apple, or Tomato. Fl. July, 

 Sept. Clt. 1596. PI. 2 to 3 feet. 



f Species not sufficiently known. 



10 L. PROCU'MBENS (Mill. diet. no. 6.) stem herbaceous, pro- 

 cumbent ; leaves pinnatifid, glabrous ; segments cut ; flowers 

 solitary, axillary. Q. H. Native country unknown. Dun. 

 sol. p. 115. syn. p. 5. Flowers lateral. Calyx large, deeply 



multifid. Flowers cream-coloured. Berries small, sub-com- 

 pressed. 



Procumbent Love Apple, or Tomato. Fl. July, Sept. Clt. 

 1770. PI. proc. 



11 L. COMMUTA'TUM (Rcem. et Schultes, syst. 4. p. 569.) 

 leaves interruptedly pinnate ; leaflets oblique, ovate, obtuse, 

 downy on both surfaces, sub-repandly crenated ; racemes bifid, 

 longer than the leaves, the branches diverging. I/ . S. Native 

 of South America, Solanum commutatum, Spreng. pug. 1. p. 

 18. Corolla yellow, form of those of the other species. Calyx 

 5-cleft. 



Changed Love Apple, or Tomato. Fl. July, Sept. Clt. 1818. 

 PI. 2 to 3 feet. 



Cult. For culture and propagation see L. esculentum, no. 9 



III. PELTANTHFRA (from mXrn, pelle, a buckler ; and 

 avfljjpa, anlhera, an anther ; in reference to the form of the 

 anthers.) Roth. nov. spec. p. 1 26. Rcem. et Schultes, syst. 

 4. p. LIV. and 670. 



LIN. SYST. Pentdndria, Monogynia. Calyx 5-parted. Corolla 

 rotate, plicate, 5-cleft. Stamens inserted in the throat of the 

 corolla, short, broad. Anthers sagittate at the base, conniving 

 into an oblong, attenuated, obsoletely pentagonal cone. Stigma 

 clavate. Berry unknown. This genus differs from Solanum 

 in the anthers being 1 -celled, hamately sagittate at the base, 

 and furnished with a sessile, peltate body on the back, and not 

 dehiscing by 2 pores at top as in that genus. 



1. P. SOLANA'CF.A (Roth, 1. c. Rcem. et Schultes, syst. 4. p. 

 670.) J? . S. Native of the East Indies, Vallaris, Heyne mss. 

 Leaves opposite, elliptic, quite entire. Racemes axillary, sub- 

 corymbose. Corolla size and colour of that of Solanum pseudo- 

 capsicum. Ovarium 1 -celled ? 



Solanaceous Peltanthera. Shrub. 



Cult. For culture and propagation see Solanum, p. 442. 



IV. CA'PSICUM (from KUTTTUI, kapto, to bite ; on account 

 of the biting heat of the seeds and pericarp; some derive it 

 from capsa, a chest.) Tourn. inst. 66. Lin. gen. no. 252. 

 Schreb. gen. no. 338. Juss. gen. p. 126. ed. Usteri. p. 141. 

 Gaertn. fruct. 2. p. 1241. t. 132. Lam. ill. t. 116. f. 1, 2. 

 H. B. et Kunth, nov. gen. 3. p. 48. Fingerhuth diss. cap. 

 Nees in Lin. trans. 17. p. 62. 



LIN. SYST. Pentdndria, Monogynia. Calyx permanent, 5- 

 toothed. Corolla rotate ; limb plicate, 5-cleft. Anthers con- 

 nivent, 2-celled, dehiscing lengthwise. Stigma obtuse. Berry 

 dry, inflated, and hollow, of a papery consistence, 2-4-celled, 

 many-seeded, naked. Placentas adnate to the dissepiment. 

 Shrubs, or sub-shrubs, rarely herbs. Leaves scattered, solitary, 

 or twin, and quite entire. Peduncles extra-axillary, and alar, 

 1 -flowered. Flowers greenish white, or violaceous. 



1. Peduncles solitary. Fruit erect, or pendulous. 

 * Annual. Berries pendulous. 



1 C. A'NNUUM (Lin. spec. p. 270.) fruit oblong, pendulous, 

 and erect ; petioles glabrous ; stem herbaceous ; calyx obsoletely 

 5-toothed. 0. H. Native of South America. Woodv. med. 

 bot. 391. t. 144. Stev. and Church, med. bot. 1. t. 44. Plenck. 

 off. t. 107. Knor, del. 2 1. 1. 6. Rheed. mal. 2. t. 35. Corollas 

 white. Fruit red, yellow, variegated with red and yellow, and 

 dark green, variable in shape. 



Capsicum is called Piment in French, Spanischr Pfeffer in 

 German, Peberone in Italian, Chilli in Mexico, and Tschili in 

 Hindostan. There are 3 species in cultivation. 1. C. dn- 

 nuum, the Guinea pepper, though a native of India, endures our 



