ADAPTATION OF VARIETIES IO5 



a matter of taste. In some markets the choice is given 

 to purple fruit, like the Beauty, while in others it can 

 only be sold at a reduced price. There are few who 

 would care to use either yellow or white fruit for can- 

 ning or cooking in any way, but many prefer them 

 for slicing, or like to use them with the red for this 

 purpose ; we have sorts showing every gradation from 

 white or light yellow in color through shades of red 

 to dark purple-red, and still others which show dis- 

 tinct colors in splashings and shadings. 



Character of flesh. Many consider that the greater 

 the number of cells and the larger the proportion of 

 flesh to that of pulp and seed the better. This may 

 be true of itself, but the fruit-like acid tomato flavor 

 which most people value is found chiefly in the pulp, 

 and the fruit which has not a due proportion of pulp 

 and flesh seems to be insipid and tasteless. Again, the 

 division into many small cells is often connected with 

 a large and pithy placenta and unevenness in maturity 

 and coloring, which faults often more than overbal- 

 ance any advantage from small cells and thick flesh. 

 The size and character of the placenta are important 

 qualities. 



In some sorts it is large, dry, pithy and hard, ex- 

 tending far into the fruit even to below the center ; 

 and sometimes seems to divide into secondary or 

 branch placentas or masses of hard cellular matter, 

 while in other varieties it is small and so soft and juicy 

 as scarcely to be distinguished from the flesh. Usu- 

 ally, but not invariably, the large and pithy placenta 

 is correlated with large-sized fruit having many cells ; 

 where this is the case it practically necessitates the 



