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LXV. On the Love Apple or Tomato, and an Account of its 

 Cultivation; with aDescription of several Varieties, and some 

 Observations on the different Species of the Genus Lycoper- 

 sicum. By Joseph Sabine, Esq. F. R. S. fyc. Secretary. 



Read January 5, 1819. 



The great use which has been made of the Tomato of late 

 years for culinary purposes, has occasioned it not only to be 

 regulary grown in private gardens, but has also rendered it 

 an object of cultivation for the market of the metropolis. 

 Possessing in itself an agreeable acid, a quality very unusual 

 in the ripe fruit of vegetables, it is quite distinct from any 

 other product of the kitchen garden. It is used, when fresh, 

 m a variety of ways in soups and sauces ; and its juice is pre- 

 served for winter use, in the manner of ketchup. 



The plant, the Solanum Lycopersicum of Linnaeus, is a 

 native of South America, from whence it was early introduced 

 into the southern parts of Europe, and used as an esculent 

 vegetable. Dodoens, in his Pemptades* published at Ant- 

 werp in 1583, describes it as grown at that time in the con- 

 tinental gardens, and says that its fruit was eaten dressed 

 with pepper, salt, and oil. Gerarde, in his Herhall, pub- 

 lished in 1597, and Parkinson, in his Paradisus, published 

 in 1656, describe it as a plant kept in England for ornament 

 and curiosity only, though they were aware that the fruit 



* Dodonaei Stirp. Hist. 1st. edit. Pempt. 3, lib. iv, cap. 30, page 455 



