BOTANY OF THE TOMATO 7 



very abundant, borne in short, branched clusters, globu- 

 lar, perfectly smooth, with no apparent sutures. From 

 l /2 to 24 inch in diameter and either red or yellow in 

 color, two-celled with numerous comparatively small, 

 kidney-shaped seeds. Many of our garden varieties 

 show evidence of crosses with this species, and by 

 many it is regarded as the original wild form of all 

 of our cultivated sorts. These, when they escape from 

 cultivation and become wild plants, as they often do, 

 from New Jersey southward, produce fruit which, in 

 many respects, resembles that of this species in size 

 and form ; but they are generally more flattened, globe- 

 shaped, with more or less distinct sutures on the upper 

 side, and I have never seen any fruit of these wild 

 plants which could not be readily distinguished from 

 that of the true Cherry tomato. 



Prof. P. H. Rolfs, Director of the Florida experi- 

 ment station, reports that among the millions of volun- 

 teer, or wild, tomatoes he has seen growing in the 

 abandoned tomato fields in Florida, he has never seen 

 a plant with fruit which could not be easily distin- 

 guished from that of the true Cherry tomato. Again, 

 one can, by selection and cultivation, easHy develop 

 from these wild forms plants producing fruit as large 

 and often practically identical with that of our cul- 

 tivated varieties, while I have given a true stock of 

 Cherry tomato most careful cultivation on the best 

 of soil for 20 consecutive generations without any 

 increase in size or change in character of the fruit. 



Pear (not Plum) tomato (L. pyriforme) (Fig. 7). 

 Plant exceptionally vigorous, with comparatively few 

 long, stout stems inclined to ascend. Leaves numerous, 



