1140 



PRACTICAL GUIDE TO GABDEN PLANTS aetichoke 



smooth, deep scarlet, solid, highly 

 flavoured. 



Ham Green Favourite. — Fruit large, 

 smooth, deep red, solid, and well- 

 flavoured. 



Laxion's Open Air. — This is an 

 improved form of the old red Tomato 

 vi'ith ribbed fruits. It is excellent for 

 growing in the open air. 



NeUA's SeedUng. — Fruit medium, 

 round, smooth, deep red, good flavour. 



Perfection. — This is a well-known and 

 popular variety. Fruit large, smooth, 

 round, bright red, finely flavoured. 



Trophy. — This is a very large and 

 nearly smooth-fruited variety, and bears 

 heavy crops. 



Young's Eclipse. — Fruit medium, 

 bi'ight red, round, smooth, with a fine 

 flavour. 



Yellow Varieties 



Although an inexplicable prejudice 

 exists against yellow-fruited Tomatoes, it 

 is gradually giving way, and each year 

 the yellow varieties find their way into 

 fresh gardens. Messrs. Sutton and Sons 

 of Reading have devoted a good deal of 

 attention to raising yellow Tomatoes, 

 and the following are some of the best 

 varieties : — 



Golden Nugget. — Fruit small, bright 

 golden-yellow, round, smooth, 8-12 in a 

 cluster, fine flavour. 



Golden Queen. — Fruit large, slightly 

 ribbed, yellow, very good cropper. 



Golden Perfection. — Like the red 

 variety of the same name, but yellow in 

 colour. 



Prince of Wales. — Fruit small, round. 



weighing about a dozen to the pound, 

 golden-yellow, fine flavour. 



8unbea/>n. — Fruit roundish oblong, 

 smooth, rich transparent amber colour, 

 excellent flavour. 



Small-fecited Vaeietibs 



These may be grown like the others 

 or as bushes. In pots 5-6 in. across they 

 are very effective and ornamental, when 

 the points of the shoots are pinched out 

 to make the plants bushy. They are 

 excellent for dessert. The foUowiag 

 varieties are best known : — 



Currant Tomato (Solanum racemi- 

 Jiorum). — A very ornamental variety with 

 drooping racemes or clusters of bright red 

 Currant-like fruits. I saw a plant of this 

 last year which had been allowed to grow 

 wild. At the end of the season its 

 branches covered 21 square yards, and the 

 main stem was rather thicker than a man's 

 wrist. There were thousands of fruits 

 borne on the plant. 



Cherry Tomato. — This is a more 

 sturdy growing plant, about 4 ft. high, 

 with stoutish much-branched stems and 

 scarlet fruits, each about 1 inch in dia- 

 meter. 



Pear-shaped or Fig Tomato. — This is 

 a vigorous variety with clusters of scarlet 

 Pear-shaped fruits about 2 in. long. 



The above varieties are readily crossed, 

 and it is easy to obtain intermediate 

 forms from the seedlings. The Currant 

 Tomato being very prolific, usually having 

 from 12 to 20 fruits in a truss, may be well 

 worth crossing with the larger but less 

 prolific kinds. 



Group V. — Composite Chops 



JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE 



(Helianthus T0BEHOSUS). — This well- 

 linown plant belongs to the same genus 

 as the Common Sunflower, H. annuus 

 (see p. 515), and very much resembles that 

 plant in appearance. It is a native of 

 N. America, with tall deciduous roughish 

 hairy stems, which die down every winter, 

 leaving numerous Potato-lUce white or 

 purplish tubers in the ground. The 

 flowers are very rarely produced in the 

 British Islands. 



Soil. — The Jerusalem Artichoke grows 

 well in any ordinary garden soil, and in 

 any out-of-the-way place. It likes plenty 



of smi, and the better the soil the richer 

 the yield of tubers every autumn. 



Planting. — This is usually done 

 about February and March, the small tubers 

 saved from the previous season being 

 placed about 1 ft. apart. They require 

 no further attention until digging time, 

 usually about November, when the stems 

 and leaves have completely withered. 



The tubers may be cooked like Potatoes 

 — boiled, baked, roasted &c., and are 

 much appreciated by some but not by 

 others. 



As already mentioned above, there are 

 two varieties of the Jerusalem Ai-tichoke, 



