By Joseph Sabine, Esq. 



88 1 



Rumphius in the place above referred to. The second sort, 

 the Tamatte Bontal, or Red Tomato, has small and smooth 

 leaves, with a roundish fruit, rather flattened, and without 

 furrows ; its colour, when ripe, is a brilliant red. These three 

 plants, would be an acquisition to the European gardens. 



I have already observed, that Tournefort had placed 

 the Love Apple in his Genus Lycopersicum ; Linn^us 

 reduced the three Genera of Solanum, Melongena, and 

 Lycopersicum of Tournefort, into his Genus Solanum; 

 but Lycopersicum has been subsequently separated, and 

 particularly by M. Dunal, of Montpelier, in his elaborate 

 Histoire des Solanum et des Genres qui ont tie confondus avec 

 eux, published in 1813. He has called the Solanum Lyco- 

 persicum of Linn^us, Lycopersicum esculentum, by which 

 name it has since been, and will probably continue to be, 

 known to botanists. 



It seems likely that all the plants which are considered as 

 species of the Genus Lycopersicum of Dunal produce 

 edible fruits, and some of them not at present in cultivation, 

 may prove valuable esculents, though the si/.e and great pro- 

 duce of the L. esculentum will always insure it a preference, 

 where magnitude of crop is looked to. This conjecture is 

 confirmed as to one of the plants by M. Humboldt. In the 

 personal narrative of the Travels of Messrs. Humboldt and 

 Bonpland,* it is stated that the Lycopersicum Humboldtii 

 is cultivated in gardens, that the fruit is round and small, and 

 has a fine flavour. It appears from the description of this 

 species, given in the accountf of the new plants discovered 



* See English Translation, Vol. iv. page 163. 



t Voyage de Humb. et Bonp. Nov. Gen. et Spec. Vol. iii. page 18. 



