230 MISCELLANEOUS WARM PLANTS. 



proved to be so full of suggestions regarding the proper 

 methods of treating them that they should have repaid 

 the time given to their cultivation by a plentiful harvest of 

 ideas, if not of fruits. The eggplant will generally set 

 fruit without the assistance of pollen, but the fruit never 

 attains its normal size. Fig. 

 82 shows a non-pollinated 

 fruit which has reached the 

 limit of its size. The reader 

 will be able to measure its 

 size by noticing that the calyx 

 covers almost half of it. The 

 fruit from which this picture 

 was made was about 4 inches 

 long. 



Acting on the above hints, 

 several attempts have been 

 made to grow eggplants in 

 our forcing-houses, with the 

 object, however, of fruiting 

 them out of season. The first 

 lot of seed was sown August 

 30, 1893. It embraced the 

 82. Non pollinated fruit. following varieties : Black Pe- 

 kin, New York Improved, Early Dwarf Purple, Round 

 Purple, and Long White. The seed was sown about 

 y% of an inch deep in rich potting soil. The flats, or 

 shallow boxes, which contained the seed were placed in 

 a warm house, and the after-treatment was very similar 

 to that commonly followed in the growing of tomatoes. 



The seedlings required pricking out about four weeks 

 after the seed was sown. They were set in 2^-inch 

 pots, where they remained until November 14, when 

 they were shifted into 4-inch pots. On December 17, 

 or nearly 16 weeks from the time of seed sowing, the 

 plants had filled these pots with roots, and they were 

 again shifted, but this time into benches. They were 



