Our viands

There is another plant standing on the borderland between fruit and vegetables which has lately come into great request. This is the tomato, long known as the love-apple. The tomato belongs to a poisonous tribe of plants, known botanically as solanacece, which includes the nightshades of deadly fame, and also the well-known and >TWIXT FRUIT AND VEGETABLE 211 highly-prized potato. The potato and tomato are both natives of America. Both were introduced about the same time ; but their history has been very different, for whilst the potato has found its way into every home, and has been the chief stay and solace of the poorest, the tomato has, until quite recently, been cultivated very sparingly, and more as a curiosity than an article of food. I remember seeing them grown against a wall as ornamental plants, in the days when potatoes flourished abundantly, before the deadly blight had fallen upon them. But although the love- apple, as it was called, was regarded as a curiosity, and admired for its beautiful colour, we should no more have thought of eating it than the seeds of the potato, which were reputed poisonous, and we believe a similar reputation was attached at that time to the tomato by the ignorant, although it was used for making sauce, and the fruit when green was sometimes pickled. The name of the tomato, Lycopersicum, signifies ' wolf- peach,' says Macintosh's 'Book of the Garden,' 'and was given to it because of the deceptive value of the fruit.' But that was at a time when, as we said above, it was regarded as only a semi-poisonous curiosity. Nowadays the tomato is highly valued, as it deserves to be, for, as a vegetable, it has found its way at last into English kitchens, and is recognised by our cooks as an excellent adjunct to soups, stews, curries, etc., but the poor still despise and dislike it, and indeed its price would prevent its free use among them. On the Continent it has long been highly prized, as well as in America, and its medicinal properties in cases of liver complaint have been long recognised. Our market gardeners are beginning to cultivate it largely, and 212 OUR VIANDS a splendid show of this fruit, or vegetable, of numerous varieties, all grown in the open, has been held at the Crystal Palace. We may, therefore, hope soon to have it abundant in English markets; meanwhile the tinned tomatoes from America and France answer fairly well for cooking purposes. The African egg plant belongs to the same family as the tomato, and is eaten boiled and stewed in some places, being highly valued in China and the West Indies.