Pumpkins and vegetable marrows, which belong to the same tribe as the melon and the cucumber, are certainly vegetables, not being eaten in the raw state. As vegetables they are much more esteemed abroad than in England, although the vegetable marrow has grown greatly in favour of late years, but the pumpkin - so much used on the Continent, in America, and in our Colonies - is still utterly rejected by our peasantry, as fit only for pigs. In vain do philanthropists show how easily it is grown, and how it may be stored for winter use. Hodge will have none of it. Nevertheless, of late pumpkin in slices has been sold at the greengrocers for soups, etc., during the winter, and appears to meet with a ready sale, so that perhaps in time the prejudice may be overcome.

Singularly enough, it would seem that the pumpkin was very early introduced into England, and was then known as the melon, the melon itself being called musk melon. The cucumber, too, is said to have been commonly grown in England in the reign of Edward III., but was afterwards neglected and disused until the reign of Henry VIII., and not generally cultivated till the middle of the seventeenth century.

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 solanacea, which includes the nightshades of deadly fame, and also the well-known and 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 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.

There is another kind of semi-fruit largely consumed in tropical countries; this is the plantain, which, with its near relation the banana, forms the staple food of innumerable tribes in Asia, Africa, America, and the oceanic islands of the Atlantic and Pacific. The plantain and banana grow in immense clusters, often weighing from seventy to eighty pounds on a single plant, and they are so easily cultivated, that even the most savage races understand how to produce them. The banana is said to bear a crop every three months, so that a plantation of from thirty to forty roots will yield more than four thousand pounds of fruit. The banana is rather smaller than the plantain, but both varieties are now frequently seen in our fruiterers' shops. The taste resembles that of a mealy pear, with a little butter added; the banana is sometimes dried like the fig, and is then pounded and used as meal.*

Perhaps we may include among those plants which serve both as fruit and vegetable the date palm, which yields a farinaceous substance resembling sago (which is the product of another species of palm), as well as the invaluable date, which, both in its green and dried state, forms the staple food of the people wherever it grows. The failure of the crop means famine, and to cut down the date trees is the first act of an enemy. The dates we buy here are dried in the sun, or pressed into baskets before they are quite ripe, as the ripe fruit would not bear transport. The centre or crown of the date palm is sometimes eaten as a cabbage, but as this destroys the tree, it is only cut from sterile trees, and after the removal of this cabbage the sap rises, and palm wine or toddy flows from the cavity at the rate of about a gallon a day, continuing for nearly six weeks in diminishing quantities. From this palm-wine, arrack is made by distillation, and a spirit is also obtained by soaking the dates in water, and afterwards distilling it, whilst the stalks are boiled and used as food for cattle. A few years ago a company was formed for the manufacture of date coffee, which was made from the date stones roasted and ground, but this spurious coffee has now been nearly, if not quite, abandoned.

* A lady writing from South Africa says they found bananas growing wild with upwards of 100 pods in a bunch.

That useful plant the rhubarb, may properly find a place in this chapter, for although chiefly used as a substitute for fruit, it is only the leaf stalk of a plant which came originally from the East, but which has apparently been cultivated in England since the latter part of the sixteenth century, and seems to grow yearly in popularity, as, when forced, it is attainable during the winter months when fruits are scarce, whilst the giant out-door leaf stalks are sold at a very cheap rate all through the summer and autumn, when it is largely used for puddings and tarts, and also for stewing, preserving, and wine-making.

The far-famed legendary lotos must also find a place here. It is variously described as a lily, and as a shrub bearing a fruit of a sweet taste resembling gingerbread. This last was probably the lotos of the Lotophagi, which is described by Polybius as a stiff, thorny shrub, with small green leaves. The fruit, when green, is said to resemble myrtle berries, but when ripe they are like round olives of a reddish colour, and, like olives, contain a hard nut The fruit is gathered, crushed, and kept in close vessels, and resembles figs or dates in flavour; it is reckoned next to the date in value, and was said to have formed the chief food of man, being so delicious that whosoever tasted it ceased to desire any other food, and forgot everything in the pleasure of eating it It grows in Egypt and Northern Africa. But although this was probably the lotos of the poets, it is certain that the Egyptians eat also the fruit and seeds of the lotos lily, as well as the root of the arum, which is eaten in many countries, either roasted or pounded, and precipitated as a starch, resembling manioc or tapioca.