February 24, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



95 



23. The newspapers have been most prompt and cordial in 

 their recognition of the undertaking, and their aid has been so 

 intelligent and efficient that the popular knowledge of the 

 enterprise is much more extensive and substantial than we 

 could have expected to produce in so short a time. There 

 is, however, no reason to expect that the objects of the move- 

 ment can be attained without considerable direct effort to pro- 

 mote and support them. IVIeans will be required for the sys- 

 tematic propagation and diffusion of ideas until the people of 

 the state in general regard the enterprise seriously, and recog- 

 nize its relations to civilization and the public welfare. If the 

 movement is to be adequately successful much repetition 

 will be necessary in the educational work required to produce 

 a distinct and fruitful impression on the public mind. 



24. Most people are so busy that but a limited amount of 

 mental alertness or energy remains available for the objects of 

 this movement. There is always much vague talk about 

 progress, or the capacity for it, but no analysis of the subject 

 has been seriously attempted in this country. I suppose the 

 most that can be said by thoughtful men regarding it is that 

 a narrow zone of improvability runs through the life of the 

 best races. It is broader at some times than others, but it 

 is never very wide. How far it extends, and what capabilities 

 it includes, can be ascertained only by strenuous and intelli- 

 gently directed effort to occupy and utilize it fully. Few efforts 

 to influence public opinion are adequately directed, and the 

 methods employed for this purpose are usually haphazard and 

 unscientific. 



25. I think the trustees should have a library and collect all 

 local histories — of places in the state — and whatever materials 

 for local history may be available in any form. Some of the 

 old town histories are very valuable, and copies are becoming 

 scarce. All town reports should be collected and preserved, 

 and those of certain boards and commissions. Tlie work of 

 the trustees will doubtless produce a general increase of in- 

 terest in local history — a most wholesome and desirable result. 

 In many of the shore towns the descendants of the oldest fam- 

 ilies, although educated in the public schools, are almost en- 

 tirely ignorant of the history of their own towns and of the 

 part their ancestors had in it. Many of the teachers in the 

 schools are no better informed on this subject. The lack of 

 popular interest regarding it is often astonishing. In one of the 

 towns the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the organiza- 

 tion of the church came and passed without any observance or 

 recognition whatever. There was not even a prayer-meeting, 

 or any allusion to the date in the sermons or services either 

 before or after it. I think that every town should prepare a 

 brief compend, or manual, of the principal facts in its own 

 history, and provide that it shall be studied and taught in the 

 town schools. It would be the natural introduction to state 

 and United States history. Once, at least, each year the schools 

 should visit and examine the most important historic places in 

 the town. 



26. The neglect and desecration of many of tlie old grave- 

 yards in the shore towns is a matter for most serious regret. 

 I have not mentioned all the instances that came under my 

 observation. There were too many of them for separate de- 

 scription, and the story became monotonous. It is unac- 

 countable that, in several cases, with vast areas of barren and 

 worthless ground on every side, the citizens should have de- 

 cided to run a public road directly through the old cemeteries, 

 thus violating the graves of their forefathers and destroying 

 the head-stones, by which alone the resting-places of their dust 

 could be identified. The sites of some of tlie smaller early 

 burying-places are perhaps irrecoverably lost and indistin- 

 guishable, but steps should at once be taken to mark and pro- 

 tect all that remain. 



27. It was encouraging to find so many highly civilized men 

 in the office of town clerk, and out of it. My thanks are due 

 to the town officers and citizens in general everywhere. 



Boston, Mass. J. B. Harrison. 



Recent Publications. 



The Pepino, Solanum muricatum. 



"\1 riTHIN the last few years a novelty has appeared in the 

 * "^ seedsmen's catalogues under the name of Pepino, Melon 

 Pear, Melon Shrub and Solanum Guatemalense. Its botanical 

 affinities and its horticultural merits have been perplexing, 

 and, therefore. Professor Bailey has tested the plant for two 

 seasons at the Cornell Station, and in a late bulletin he gives 

 an interesting account of it, the main points of which are 

 here reproduced : 

 The plant is a strong-growing herb or half-shrub in this cli- 



mate, becoming two or three feet high and as many broad. It 

 has a clean and attractive foliage, composed of long-lance- 

 olate, nearly smooth, very dark green entire leaves. It is a 

 profuse bloomer, the bright blue flowers reminding one of 

 Potato-flowers. I^ut one fruit sets in each flower-cluster, and 

 as this grows the stem elongates until it reaches a length of 

 from four to six inches. The fruit itself is very handsome. 

 As it ripens, it assumes a warm yellow color, which is overlaid 

 with streaks and veins of violet-purple. These fruits are some- 

 what egg-shaped, conspicuously pointed, and vary from two 

 and a half to three and a half inches in length. If the fruits 

 are still green upon the approach of frost, they may be placed 

 in a cool dry room, where, in the course of two or three weeks, 

 they will take on their handsome color. If carefully handled 

 or wrapped in paper, the fruits will keep until midwinter or 

 later. The fruit is pleasantly scented, and the flavor of it may 

 be compared to that of a juicy, tender and somewhat acid 

 Egg-plant. It is eaten either raw or cooked. 



Upon the appi'oach of winter we dig up some of the plants 

 and remove them to the conservatory or forcing-house. It is 

 in the capacity of ornamental plants that they will probably 

 find their greatest usefulness in this latitude. The habit is at- 

 tractive, the flowers bright and pleasant, and the fruit — if it is 

 obtained — is highly ornamental and curious. The plant will 

 stand a little frost. It has not fruited freely at the station, 

 however, although it blooms profusely, and efforts have been 

 made to insure fruiting by hand-pollination. The anthers give 

 very little pollen. Perhaps half the plants succeed in setting 

 two or three fruits apiece. All the fruits raised have been 

 enfirely seedless, although the seed-cavities remain. The plant 

 must be propagated by cuttings or layers therefore. The stock 

 used was obtained from a botanical specimen from Florida 

 and was not thoroughly dried. 



This plant was introduced into the United States from Guate- 

 mala in 1883 by Gustave Eisen, of California. There has been 

 much speculation as to its nativity and its true botanical posi- 

 tion. At first it was thought by some to be a variety of the 

 Egg-plant, but it is very distinct from that species. But the 

 plant is by no means a novelty to science nor even to cultiva- 

 tion, for it was accurately described and figured so early as 

 1714 by Feuill^e in his account of travels in Peru. He called 

 it Melongena laurifolia. At that time the plant bore " several 

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

 vated in gardens, and the Indians ate it with delight. The 

 taste is described as somewhat like a melon. Eating too heart- 

 ily of it was supposed to bring on fevers. In Lima it is called 

 Pepo. In 1799 it was again described and figured by Ruiz and 

 Pavon. They described the fruit as "ovate, pointed, smooth 

 and shining, white variegated with purple, hanging, of the 

 shape of a lemon." They say that it was much cultivated in 

 Peru, and added that it was propagated by means of cuttings. 

 It was called "Pepino de la tierra." In 1785, Thouin, a noted 

 French gardener, introduced it into Europe, and four years 

 later Aiton, of the Royal Garden at Kew, England, named it 

 Solanum muricatum. The specific name, muricate or prickly, 

 was given in reference to the rough or warty character of the 

 sprouts which spring from the root, and which are often used 

 for propagation. And now, over a hundred years later, it has 

 found its way to us. 



Mr. Eisen's account of the Pepino will be interesting in this 

 connection. "The Central American name of this plant," he 

 writes, " is Pepino. Under this name it is known everywhere 

 in the Central American highlands, and under this nam^e only. 

 But as Pepino in Spanish also means Cucumber, it was thought 

 best to give the plant an English name. I suggested the name 

 Melon-shrub, but through the error or the wisdom of a printer 

 the name was changed to Melon Pear, which I confess is not 

 very appropriate, but still no less so than PearGuava, Alligator 

 Pear, Rose Apple, Strawberry Guava, Mango Apple, Custard 

 Apple, etc. ... As to the value of the fruit and the success of 

 it in the United States, only time will tell. The fact that I found 

 the plant growing only on the high land where the tempera- 

 ture in the shade seldom reaches seventy-five deg'rees, Fahren- 

 heit, suggested to me the probability that it would fruit in a 

 more northern latitude. In California it has proved a success 

 in the cooler parts, such as in Los Angeles city, and in several 

 places in the Coast-range, and will undoubtedly fruit in many 

 other localities where it is not too hot. ... In pulp and skin 

 the^Pepino resembles somewhat the Bartlett pear, but in taste 

 inore a musk-melon ; but it has besides a most delicious acid, 

 entirely wanting in melons, and quite peculiarly its own. In 

 warm localities this acid does not develop, and this fact is the 

 greatest drawback to the success of the fruit. The fruit has no 

 seed, as a rule. And in all I have found only a dozen seeds, 

 and those in fruit which came from Salama, in Guatemala, a 



