272 Solanaceous Fruits 



color is usually of a yellowish cast. There are^ varieties 

 with striped fruits and others with long and coiling fruits, 

 hut these are known mostly as curiosities. 



Eggplant has heen grown from the earliest times. It is 

 probably native to India. It is a low spreading bushy more 

 or less hairy and spiny herb (or subshrub), with large 

 blue flowers. It is known as aubergine by the French. 

 Interesting parts of the plant are shown in Figs. 156 

 to 159. 



The Eggplants 



Solanum. See page 215. The eggplant is a puzzling bo- 

 tanical subject. Its nativity and its origin are both unknown. 

 The cultivated forms are in need of thorough botanical study 

 in both field and herbarium. 



S. Melongena, Linn., var. esculentum, Nees. Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. xvil, 48. 1832. {8. esculentum, Dunal, Hist. Solan. 208. 

 1813.) Cultivated Eggplant. A bushy leafy erect plant, 

 2 to 3 ft., gray-tomentose, or more or less scurfy : stem 

 angled or furrowed, sometimes spiny : leaves alternate, 6 to 15 

 in. long, oblong, oval or ovate in outline, thick, stout-petioled, 

 unequal at base, obtusely angled or lobed, apex acute or 

 obtuse, commonly bearing spines on petiole, midrib and main 

 veins, but sometimes spineless : flowers mostly single, oppo- 

 site or subopposite the leaves, inclined or nodding, very large 

 (1% to 2 in. across) in the commercial varieties, violet with 

 lighter band in the center of the lobe, on a stout and length- 

 ening jointed peduncle; calyx usually prickly, parted about 

 half its length into 5 to 7 narrow pointed green lobes, the 

 tube angled ; coroUa-llmb rotate, with 5 to 7 acute lobes, the 

 margins thin and more or less crinkled ; stamens 5 to 8, 

 attached to the corolla-tube, filaments very short, tjtie long 

 yellow anthers erect around the short style; ovary globular- 

 conical, more or less hairy, particularly about the top, many- 

 small-celled : fruit a large pendent berry, 2 or 3 in. to 1 ft. 

 long, purple, yellowish, white or striped, smooth and shining. 



