Cultivated Plants of the Future. 
605 
carrot more than thirty ; beet and radish more than forty ; lettuce 
and onion more than fifty ; turnip more than seventy ; cabbage, 
kidney-bean, and garden-pea more than one hundred. 
The amount of horticultural work which these numbers re- 
present is enormous. Each variety established as a race (that is, 
a variety which comes true to seed) has been evolved by the same 
sort of patient care and waiting which we have seen is necessary 
in the case of cereals, but the time of waiting has not been as a 
general thing so long. 
In the case of the cabbage there are important morphological 
changes like those to which Professor Bailey has called attention in 
the case of the tomato. Suppose we are strolling along the beach at 
some of the seaside resorts of Prance, and should fall in with this 
coarse cruciferous plant, with its sprawling leaves and strong odour. 
Would there be anything in its appearance to lead us to search for 
its hidden merit as a food-plant 1 What could we see in this wild 
cabbage which would give it a preference over a score of other 
plants at our feet 1 
Again, suppose we are journeying in the high lands of Peru, 
and should meet with a strong-smelling plant of the nightshade 
family (Solanacece), bearing a small irregular fruit, of sub-acid 
taste and of peculiar flavour. We will further imagine that the 
peculiar taste strikes our fancy, and we conceive that the plant has 
possibilities as a source of food. We should be led by our know- 
ledge of the potato, probably a native of the same region, to think 
that this allied plant might be safely transferred to a northern 
climate, but would there be promise of enough future usefulness, 
in such a case as this, to warrant our carrying the plant north as 
an article of food ? Suppose, further, we should ascertain that the 
fruit in question was relished not only by the natives of its home, 
but that it had found favour among the tribes of South Mexico 
and Central America, and had been cultivated by them until it 
had attained a large size ; should we be strengthened in our 
venture ? Let us go one step further still. Suppose that, having 
decided upon the introduction of the plant, and having urged 
everybody to try it, we should find it discarded as a fruit, but 
taking a place in gardens as a curiosity under an absurd name, or 
as a basis for preserves and pickles ; should we not look upon our 
experiment in the introduction of this new plant as a failure 1 
This is not a hypothetical case. 
The tomato, the plant in question, was cultivated in Europe as 
long ago as 1554 ; it was known in Virginia in 1781 and in the 
Northern States in 1785 ; but it found its way into favour slowly, 
even in this land of its origin. A credible witness states that 
in Salem it was almost impossible to induce people to eat or 
even taste of the fruit. And yet, as is well known, its present 
cultivation on an enormous scale in Europe and the United States 
is scarcely sufficient to meet the increasing demand. 
Before asking specifically in what direction we shall look for 
new vegetables, it may be useful to call attention, in passing, to a 
