means so easy to classify our cultivated varieties into botanical species. We have in cultivation varieties which are known to have originated in gardens and from the same parentage, but which differ from each other so much in habit of growth, character of leaf and fruit and other respects, that if they had been found growing wild they would unhesitatingly be pronounced different species, and botanists are not agreed as to how our many and very different garden varieties should be classified botanically. Some contend that all of our cultivated sorts are varieties of but two distinct species, while others think they have originated from several.

Classification.—The author suggests the following classification, differing somewhat from that sometimes given, as he believes that the large, deep-sutured fruit of our cultivated varieties and the distinct pear-shaped sorts come from original species rather than from variations of Lycopersicum cerasiforme:

Currant tomato, Grape tomato, German or Raisin tomato (Lycopersicum pimpinellifolium, L. racemiforme) (Fig. 5).—Universally regarded as a distinct species. Plant strong, growing with many long, slender, weak branches which are not so hairy, viscid, or ill-smelling, and never become so hard or woody as those of the other species. The numerous leaves are very bright green in color, leaflets small, nearly entire, with many small stemless ones between the others. Fruit produced continuously and in great quantity on long racemes like those of the currant, though they are often branched. They continue to elongate and blossom until the fruit at the upper end is fully ripened. Fruit small, less than ½ inch in diameter, spherical, smooth and of a particularly bright, beautiful red color which contrasts well with the bright green leaves, and this abundance of beautifully colored and gracefully poised fruit makes the plant worthy of more general cultivation as an ornament, though the fruit is of little value for culinary use. This species, when pure, has not varied under cultivation, but it readily crosses with other species and with our garden varieties, and many of these owe their bright red color to the influence of crosses with the above species.

FIG. 5—CURRANT TOMATO AND CHARACTERISTIC CLUSTERS

FIG. 6—RED CHERRY TOMATO

Cherry tomato (L. cerasiforme) (Fig. 6).—Plant vigorous, with stout branches which are distinctly trailing in habit. Leaves flat or but slightly curled. Fruit very abundant, borne in short, branched clusters, globular, perfectly smooth, with no apparent sutures. From ½ to ¾ inch in diameter and either red or yellow in color, two-celled with numerous comparatively small, kidney-shaped seeds. Many of our garden varieties show evidence of crosses with this species, and by many it is regarded as the original wild form of all of our cultivated sorts. These, when they escape from cultivation and become wild plants, as they often do, from New Jersey southward, produce fruit which, in many respects, resembles that of this species in size and form; but they are generally more flattened, globe-shaped, with more or less distinct sutures on the upper side, and I have never seen any fruit of these wild plants which could not be readily distinguished from that of the true Cherry tomato.

Prof. P. H. Rolfs, Director of the Florida experiment station, reports that among the millions of volunteer, or wild, tomatoes he has seen growing in the abandoned tomato fields in Florida, he has never seen a plant with fruit which could not be easily distinguished from that of the true Cherry tomato. Again, one can, by selection and cultivation, easily develop from these wild forms plants producing fruit as large and often practically identical with that of our cultivated varieties, while I have given a true stock of Cherry tomato most careful cultivation on the best of soil for 20 consecutive generations without any increase in size or change in character of the fruit.

FIG. 7—PEAR-SHAPED TOMATO

Pear (not Plum) tomato (L. pyriforme) (Fig. 7).—Plant exceptionally vigorous, with comparatively few long, stout stems inclined to ascend. Leaves numerous, broad, flat, with a distinct bluish-green color noticeable, even in the cotyledons. Fruit abundant, borne in short branched or straight clusters of five to ten fruits. It is perfectly smooth, without sutures, and of the shape of a long, slender-necked pear, not over an inch in transverse by 1½ inches in longitudinal diameter. When the stock is pure the fruit retains this form very persistently. The production of egg-shaped or other forms is a sure indication of impure stock. They are bright red, dark yellow, or light yellowish white in color, two-celled, with very distinct central placenta and comparatively few and large seeds. The fruit is inclined to ripen unevenly, the neck remaining green when the rest of the fruit is quite ripe. It is less juicy than that of most of our garden sorts but of a mild and pleasant flavor. This is considered, by many, to be simply a garden variety, but I am inclined to the belief that it is a distinct species and that the contrary view comes from the study of the impure and crossed stocks resulting from crosses between the true Pear tomato and garden sorts which are frequently sold by seedsmen as pear-shaped. Many garden sorts—like the Plum (Fig. 8), the Egg, the Golden Nugget, Vick's Criterion, etc.—are known to have originated from crosses of the Pear and I think that most, if not all, the garden sorts in which the longitudinal diameter of the fruit is greater than its transverse diameter owe this form to crosses with L. pyriforme.

FIG. 8—YELLOW PLUM TOMATO, SHOWING MOST USUAL FORM OF CLUSTER

Cultivated varieties (L. esculentum).—This is commonly used as the botanical name of our cultivated varieties, rather than as the name of a distinct species. In western South America, however, there is found growing a wild plant of Lycopersicum which differs from the other recognized species in being more compact in growth, with fewer branches and larger leaves, and carrying an immense burden of fruit borne in large clusters. The fruit is larger than that of the other species but much smaller than that of our cultivated sorts; is very irregular in shape, always with distinct sutures, and often deeply corrugated and bright red in color.