158 FLORA DOMESTICA, 



EGG-PLANT. 



SOLANUM MELONGENA. 



SOLANE^. PENTANDEIA MONOGYNIA. 



The inhabitants of the British islands in the West Indies call it 

 Brown- John, or Brown- Jolly.-- French, mayenne ; aubergine; berin- 

 gene; verangeane; plante a oeuf. Italian, melanzana [mad apple] : 

 uovo Turco [Turkish egg] ; petronciano ; marignano. 



ALL the varieties of the Egg-plant are annual, and must 

 be raised in a hot-bed : they are cultivated chiefly for their 

 fruit, which is formed like an egg, and when white, has 

 exactly the appearance of one : it varies in size from two to 

 nine or ten inches in length ; and in colour, from white to 

 yellow, pale red, or purple. Here the fruit is only re- 

 garded as a curiosity ; but in the East Indies they broil it, 

 and eat it with salt and pepper ; or slice it, pickle it for an 

 hour or two, boil it tender, and eat it as greens. The 

 Turks, who are fond of it, call it Badinjan. 



" Thunberg says," speaking of Batavia, " Fokke Fokkes 

 was the name by which the fruit of the Solanum Melongena 

 was distinguished, which grew here both in a wild and a 

 cultivated state. It is of an oblong form, something like a 

 pear, of various sizes, of a quite smooth and shining exte- 

 rior, and of a purple blue colour. The fruit has an agree- 

 able taste when boiled in soup, or else boiled up in wine 

 and pepper *." 



Sibthorpe, speaking of the Isle of Athos, says, " Some 

 of the caloyers were busy in cutting into slices the fruit of 

 the Melongena, and tomatoes, to dry ; these, with preserved 

 olives, furnish a winter provision for the convent )-." 



* Thunberg's Travels, vol. ii. p. 293. 



t Sibthorpe's Journal, p. 65 ; Walpole's Travels in the East. 



