VEGETABLES EGG PLAXT. 203 



Green Prolific, As a pickle variety it is unsurpassed. 

 Its characteristics are its very uniform growth, hardly 

 ever yielding Cucumbers too large for pickling, and its 

 immense productiveness. 



Tailby's Hybrid. Dark green and glossy in color, good 

 yielder and fine flavor; resembles the English forcing 

 varieties, with one of which it is a cross. 



West India Gherkin or Burr. (See figure 46.) This 

 variety, which is exclusively grown for pickling, is a spe- 

 cies distinct from the common Cucumber (Oucumis An- 

 guria). It is very small, length from two to three inches, 

 a strong growing sort, and should be planted five feet 

 apart. 



EGG PLANT. (Solatium Melongena.) 



The cultivation of the Egg Plant, fiom its extreme 

 tenderness, is, in its early stage, attended perhaps with 

 more trouble than any vegetable of our gardens. A na- 

 tive of Tropical America, it at all times requires a high 

 temperature. For this reason, in this latitude, the seeds 

 should not be sown in the hot-bed until the first week 

 in April ; even then a steady bottom heat is necessary to 

 a healthy development, and there should be a warm cov- 

 ering at night over the sashes. I have always found that 

 with tender plants of this kind, nothing was gained by 

 starting early, even though by great care the plants are 

 carried through the cold season. By the time they can 

 be planted in the open ground, about June 1st, those 

 started the 1st of March would be no larger than those 

 started 1st of April, besides being harder both in roots 

 and leaves, in which condition they are far inferior to the 

 younger plants that have been raised with less than half 

 the labor. 



A correspondent from an inland town writes that, for 

 the first time, the Egg Plant has been grown in his sec- 



