Miscellaneous. 



382 



[June 1901 



apple has been frequently the cause of fatal poisoning of children, though none but 

 a child would be likely to ea^t anything so nauseous. Scraped raw potato was used 

 as an anti-scurvy remedy by Kane and the early Arctic explorers. 



The Brinjal, Aubergine, or egg fruit (Solarium Melongena), cutlets of which 

 are supposed by married ladies to constitute the staple of the bachelor's menu in 

 Ceylon, is an example of a non-poisonous Solanean fruit. The leaf is often prickly 

 and the Potato tree with its showy purple flowers has leaves so markedly prickly 

 that it used in the writer's salad days to be planted on short cuts and round gardens 

 to prevent coolies treading on forbidden ground— the little spines breaking off and 

 producing painful ulcers of the sole leather (tough as it is) of Ramasamy, 



Capsicums are also an edible Solanacean fruit, but the essential principle is 

 so highly irritant that it must have required some courage on the part of primitive 

 man to use it. It is curious how fond many wild birds are of these pungent fruits, 

 although at first sight or taste the frequently green colour and hot taste would 

 ssem to make for concealment and protection. It must be noted of the capsicums 

 that the juice differs from most of the other members of the family in being non- 

 narcotic. It is puzzling to think what the inhabitants of India and Ceylon did before 

 the Portuguese introduced this indispensable ingredient of the fin de siecle curry. 



None of the Oriental Piperacece have the " grip" of a real Bird's eye Chili— 

 and the Gingers and Moringa are but poor substitutes. Pepper is from the 

 Sanskrit— pipala. 



It is perhaps superflous to note that Chili is not the home of the Chili 

 peppers or Capsicums, another instance of faulty Botanical Geography. I venture 

 to suggest that the way of introduction of the Capsicums was via Peru and Chili 

 through the Spanish Philippines to India, while the Brazils were working round the 

 globe the other way, as already stated, via the Portuguese West and East African 

 settlements. 



In Hungary and the Danubian States the cultivation of Capsicums has 

 reached its acme. Thousands of acres are uuder its cultivation and over 30 varieties 

 of red and yellow peppers of various degrees of fieriness are sold, either ground or 

 dried, in shops where nothing else is sold, in Buda Pesth and other towns. Goulash 

 the national dish, is a stew of mutton, flour and pepper (or Paprika as it is called). 

 It is perhaps hardly necessary to mention that many of the cultivated capsicums 

 are almost devoid of Capsicin and are almost as succulent as Cucumber, so that they 

 may be eaten as salad alone with a little salt or salad dressing, 



The Tomato (Lycopersicum) and the Cape Gooseberry (Physalis) which comes 

 from Peru represent the acme of edibility among the fruits of the Solanece, a 

 quality they share with the tree Tomato- It is interesting to trace the characteristic 

 gooseberry flavour as gradually weeded out in the cultivated varieties. The bladder- 

 like investment (accrescent calyx) which gives the name to Physalis, has dis- 

 appeared in the garden Tomatoes. 



There is a showy semi-wild but poisonous Solanum ? &*. Jacquinii, with fruits 

 almost exactly like the cherry tomato, which is quite common in Ceylon— but this is 

 probably an escaped garden specimen. I have known coolie children poisoned by 

 these fruits. 



One has only to refer to the works of the Elizabethan dramatists to find 

 many mysterious medicinal virtues attributed to the Tomato and even to the more 

 insipid Potato. The name Love-apple & Pomme d' amour as applied to the Tomato 

 indicates sufficiently its theraputic repute and " Rare" Ben Jonson's encomia on the 

 virtues of Potato Pie have been soberly held in the " spacious days of great Victoria" 

 feo account for the high birth-rate in Ireland, 



