THE PEPINO. 149 



very useful in this latitude. The habit is attractive, the 

 flowers bright and pleasant, and the fruit is highly orna- 

 mental and curious. The plant will stand a little frost. 



The plant does not fruit freely with us, however, 

 although it blooms profusely. We have endeavored to 

 insure fruiting by hand pollination, but without success. 

 The anthers give very little pollen. Perhaps half the 

 plants succeed in setting two or three fruits apiece. All 

 the fruits which we have raised have been entirely seed- 

 less, and this appears to be the common experience. 

 The seed-cavities remain, however, as shown in the cross- 

 section in Fig. 48. The plant must be propagated by 

 cuttings or layers, therefore. We obtained our stock 

 from a botanical specimen which I obtained from Florida, 

 and which was not thoroughly dried. 



This plant was introduced into the United States from 

 Guatemala fn 1882 by Gustav Eisen, of California.* 

 There has been much speculation as to its nativity and 

 its true botanical position. At first it was thought by 

 some to be a variety of the eggplant, f but it is very dis- 

 tinct from that species. But the plant is by no means a 

 novelty to science nor even to cultivation, for it was ac- 

 curately described and figured so early as 1714 by Feuillee 

 in his account of travels in Peru.J He called it Melon- 

 gena laurifolia. At that time the plant bore " several 

 little lenticular seeds, one line broad." It was carefully 

 cultivated in gardens, and the Indians ate it with delight. 

 The taste is described as somewhat like a melon. Eat- 

 ing too heartily of it was supposed to bring on fevers. In 

 Lima it is called Pepo. In 1799 it was again described 

 and figured by botanists visiting Peru, Ruiz and Pavon. || 

 They described the fruit as "ovate, pointed, smooth and 

 shining, white variegated with purple, hanging, of the 



*Orch. and Card. x. 61 (1888). 

 fGard. Monthly, xxix. 24, 48, 84, 120, 355 (1887). 

 JJourn. Obs. Phys. Math, et Bot. 735, t. 26. 

 1 Flora. Peruviana, ii. 32 t. 162 a. 



