The Aubergine, or mad apple with scarlet fruit (Solatium Pseudo-Mdongena of Tenore), has been introduced into France by M. Louesse, one of our most distinguished horticulturists, who received the seeds of it from Portugal some years ago. The first, being probably not ripe enough, did not grow; a second package gave better results. This plant is an annual; its stalk, straight and green, attaining the height of a metre and more; the alternate leaves, supported by a petiole, are many-lobed, with nerves strongly projecting on the lower surface, as rough to the touch as those of some Yerbascura; they are, towards the middle of the plant, about 0.15 metres long, 0.22 wide. The flowers have nothing very remarkable, but it is not so with the fruit, which acquires, by degrees, nearly the size of a hen's egg; it Is pendent, two or three together, in consequence of the bifurcation of the stalks; its form is oval and flat; the two transverse diameters are from 0.05 metres to 0.06 metres. The length is 0.07 metres; there are observed some deep, longitudinal, parallel furrows, placed with some regularity on the two flat surfaces, generally with three on each. Its color is a fine tint of aurora, or more often brilliant red scarlet.

Tenore said that they are more or less mingled with green, but we have not observed this latter color. The interior consists of two irregular cells, containing numerous kidney-shaped seeds. It ripens at the beginning of autumn.

The culture of this plant is almost that of others of the same nature; it requires much heat, a rich and well-manured soil, and abundant watering. The seed is sown on a bed, at the end of March or beginning of April, and replanted in beds. M. Louesse advises Dipping the end of the shoots, and cutting off a certain number of useless branches; thus favoring the development of the fruit. It is very probable this plant could be cultivated in pots, as the Solatium ovigerum. The Solanum Gilo of Raddi, regarded at first by Lenore as a distinct species, is only a simple variety of the one of which we are speaking; it is distinguished from it, upon the authority of Tenore, by the color of the fruit, and likewise by its sour and sharp taste, while the fruit of the Solanum Pseudo melongeun is insipid. Dunal informs us, however, that this fruit is esteemed, and the plant cultivated in all the Spanish and Brazilian provinces bordering on the tropics. It must here necessarily acknowledge the influence of the climate.

Under that of Paris, there is no reason to suppose that the fruit acquires the proper qualities to be eatable, and the scarlet Aubergine remains simply an ornamental plant, which one could associate with or substitute for the egg-plant (Solanum ovigerum of Dunal). M. Louesse has observed that the vulgar name of Aubergine, Tomate, is false, and relates more probably to the Solanum Texanium, a neighboring species, the fruit of which is flat and projecting at the sides, and the stalk deep violet, and full of thorns. - Aristide Dupins, in Revue Horticole.