EGG PLANT, OR GUINEA SQUASH. 



265 



grown, cut off the upper part of the plant above tlie larger 

 fruit, that its growth may be stopped, and the fruit below 

 will be larger, and several days earlier. Ninety per cent, 

 of the fruit grows within eighteen inches of the ground, 

 but a large portion of the vines grow above that height 

 Tomatoes like the soil about them well hoed, and free 

 from weeds. Plants grown in the open air, are the more 

 abundant in bearing, than those forwarded under glass. In 

 well-trenched ground, they will continue bearing until frost. 



To Save Seed. — Select the largest early fruit, mash with 

 the hand, and wash the seed from the pulp ; spread out 

 upon plates and dry in the shade ; when dry, put them in 

 paper bags. 



Use. — Few vegetables are prepared in as many different 

 forms as the tomato. It is pickled when green, and pre- 

 served when ripe, it is eaten raw or cooked, it enters into 

 soups and sauces, and is prepared in catsups, marmalades, 

 and omelets. The French, and the Italians, near Rome 

 and Naples, raised them by the acre, long before used by 

 other nations, and it is said, prepared them in an almost in- 

 finite variety of ways. There are very few preparations into 

 which it enters, which are not improved by the addition. 



Solanum Melongcna—EGG-VhmT, or Guinea Squash. 

 The egg plant is a tender annual, a native of Africa^ 

 whence its name Guinea Squash. It was introduced into 

 England in 1597. The varieties of purple egg-plant are 

 the only ones used in cooking, the white variety being- 

 raised for ornament. Egg-plant derives its name from the 

 white variety, which when small bears a close resemblance 

 to an egg. The egg-plant when first introduced, was not 

 regarded with much favor for culinary purposes, but is now 

 rapidly working its way upwards in general esteem. All 

 the egg-plants grow finally in this climate, 

 1^ 



