CHAPTER X 



SOLAN ACEOUS FRUITS 



Tomato 

 Eggplant 



Pepper 

 Husk tomato 



Tomatoes and eggplants are hot-season plants. They re- 

 quire nearly or quite the entire season in which to mature. 

 Usually they grow until hilled hy frost, at least in the 

 North, as they are perennials or plur-annuals, and the pro- 

 duction of a heavy crop depends largely on securing an 

 early start. They are seed-hed crops, and they need abun^ 

 dance of quicJi-acting fertilizers applied relatively early in 

 their growth. They are grown in hills; that is, not in con- 

 tinuous drills. 



These plants are here called solanaeeous fruits because 

 they belong to the family Solanaceae. To this family also 

 belongs the potato, which is a tuber. Here belong also 

 fruits of minor importance, as the tree tomato (Cypho- 

 mandra hetacea) and the morelle. The former is a semi- 

 woody bush 5 to 10 feet high, bearing egg-shaped tomato- 

 flavored fruits about 2 inches long, the second and third 

 years from seed; in warm countries grown out of doors 

 and in northern parts sometimes raised under glass. The 

 latter (morelle) is a form of Solanum nigrum or black 

 nightshade, a plant in the wild without edible fruits. 

 The cultivated plant has berries larger than a large 

 pea. It is an annual of simple culture. In this 



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