A fruit much more agreeable to the civilized palate, though of 



by others, is the ground-cherry, husk-tomato, or cherry-tomato, 

 produced by various species of Physalis, in the tomato family. 

 There is a wide variation in sweetness and flavor among the 

 several species. The best is produced by the very sticky plant 

 that we know botanically as P. viscosa. The plant grows in sandy 

 soil near the coast, rarely reaching a foot in height, but spread- 

 ing out to twice that breadth. It bears an ovoid, pointed husk an 

 inch or more long, inside of which is a yellow, sticky, sweet berry. 

 It is ripe in the late blackberrying season, when it is much sought 

 by children, and is relished by adults. It reminds us slightly in 

 its flavor of the much larger berry of the mandrake, or may- 

 apple, a rather well-known fruit also often eaten, though scarcely 

 to be called good. 



The elderberries are also fruits of a peculiar strong flavor, 



very familiar, and this wine is a very superior article. Their use 

 in pie-making is also quite well known, but their former very ex- 

 tensive use as a food among the savages is a historical fact 



in America, black, red and even blue in color, and all seem to 

 have been employed. A fact more difficult for us to realize is 

 the use, apparently never extensive, of the wax-berries (Sym- 

 phoricarpos), and the fruits of various species of honeysuckle, 



My lecture should include an account of a number of interest- 

 ing semi-tropical fruits growing along our southern borders, from 

 Texas eastward, including the sea-grape (Coccoloba), the cocoa- 

 plum (Chrysobalanns), the downward plum {Bumelid), and fruits 

 of the genera Condalia, Zhyphus, Forestiera, Cordia, Ehrectia 

 and Celtis. The qualities and uses of most of these fruits are, 

 however, very little known as yet and I will content myself with 

 having exhibited these pictures and made reference to them. 

 H. H. Rusby. 



