IV.] 



THE GRANDIFOLIUM TOMATOES. 



117 



a remarkable divergence from the species in the most 

 fundamental botanical characters of its leaves. The 

 leaflets are much fewer than in the common tomatoes, 

 very large, the lower side strongly decurrent on the 

 stem, the margins entire, and 

 the blades plane or flat, — 

 characters which are as far 

 removed from Lycopersicum 

 esculentum, from which it 

 came, as the characters of the 

 latter are from other recog- 

 nized species. In 

 young plants, the, 

 leaves are even 

 entire, a character 

 which is supposed 

 to be foreign to the ge- 

 nus! The tendency to- 

 wards this large leaved 

 type was noticed many 

 years ago in the old 

 Keyes Prolific tomato, 

 but appeared to have 

 first attracted much at- 

 tention in Nisbit Vic- 

 toria, a variety which 

 came from seed of 

 Hathaway Excelsior, 

 which has foliage very small, curled, and much divided. 

 In very recent years, it has appeared again in a most 

 emphatic form in the Mikado or Turner Hybrid, and in 

 the Potato -Leaf. We have a good indication of how 

 distinct these two races of tomatoes are from the fact 



Lycopersicum pyriforme, from Dunal. 



