86 
64. SOL AN A cm: . 
pear- or bottle-gourd-shaped, “red or y.” — L. pynforme Dun. 
Hist. Sol. 112, t. 26; DC. xiii. 1. 26. Sol. pomiferum “ Cav. 
Descr. 112; ” Pers. i. 226. — Rarely cult, in Mad. and not ob- 
served in the Canaries or Cape Verdes. According to Dunal 
himself in DC. 1. c., not differing from a except in shape of fr. 
y. esculentum ; rac. often bifid ; fl. polymerous ; fr. depresso- 
spheroidal torulose sulcate multilocular. — L. esculentum “ Mill. 
Diet. no. 2;” Dun. Hist. Sol. 113, t. 3, C; Seub. Fl. Az. 38; 
Coss. et Germ. 274; DC. xiii. 26; "Willk. et Lange ii. 524. 
Sol. lycopersicum Linn. Sp. (ed. 1) 185, (ed. 2) 265 (excl. 
var. /3) ; Lam. 111. no. 2330, t. 115. f. 2; Poir. in Lam. Diet, 
iv. 287 (excl. var. /3) ; Desf. i. 194 ; Brot. i. 182 ; Pers. i. 226 ; 
Ait. H. K. i. 399. Poma cimoris Ger. Herb. 275. Solanum 
pomiferum fructu rotundo See. Moris. Hist. iii. 520, § 13. t. 1. 
f. 7. — In Mad. as in the Canaries and Cape Verdes, cult, only 
in gardens or vineyards. About Funchal &c. frequent, but only 
in summer and autumn. 
Whole aspect, foliage, &c. exactly as in a, but perhaps some- 
what more robust and dwarfed in habit, with stouter or more 
succulent less elongated st. or branches. Fl. the same in form, 
size and colour, but cal. 6-20-partite, cor. 6-15-lobed or stellate, 
anth. 6-15 polyadelphous and “style multifid.” Fr. orbicular 
deeply depressed or umbilicate, the diam. far exceeding the 
axis, grooved or torulose like a melon or pumpkin or Pitanga, 
1^-3 or even 4 in. in diam., blood-red or scarlet, rarely y., more 
rarely ivory- or pale greenish-w., many-celled, somewhat more 
firm and fleshy or less juicy than in a ; excellent sliced raw in 
vinegar as a salad, or stewed whole as a vegetable &c. 
Though regularly propagated by seed in gardens, this seems 
to be nothing but a form or race with monstrous fl. and fr. of 
a, differing in nothing whatever, so far as I can discover and 
as Dunal indeed confesses in DC. 1. c., but the irregularly poly- 
merous fl. and fr. (formed from the combination and partial 
suppression as it were at once of several (2-5) fl. and ovaries 
into one) and the perhaps somewhat more succulent and robust 
st. and habit. Nor have I ever once seen it either in Mad., 
the Canaries or Cape Verdes growing spontaneously (wild or 
naturalized) like a, out of gardens, in which, along with a, it 
is in Mad. regularly raised from seed. Whether its seeds how- 
ever, when not growing under cultivation, really revert to a, I 
have not ascertained. It would be an experiment well worth 
making. 
