Alkekengi

Chapter XII.

Miscellaneous Vegetables.

Alkekengi, or Ground Cherry. Corn. Egg-plant. Martynia. Oil Radish. Okra, or Gumbo. Pepper. Rhubarb, or Pie-plant. Sunflower. Tobacco. Tomato.

Strawberry Tomato. Winter Cherry. Ground Cherry. Barbadoes Gooseberry. Physalis edulis.

A hardy annual plant from Central or Tropical America. Stem angular, very much branched, but not erect,—in good soils, attaining a length or height of more than three feet; leaves large, triangular; flowers solitary, yellow, spotted or marked with purple, and about half an inch in diameter; fruit rounded or obtuse-heart-shaped, half an inch in diameter, yellow, and semi-transparent at maturity, enclosed in a peculiar thin, membranous, inflated, angular calyx, or covering, which is of a pale-green color while the fruit is forming, but at maturity changes to a dusky-white or reddish-drab. The pedicel, or fruit-stem, is weak and slender; and most of the berries fall spontaneously to the ground at the time of ripening.

The seeds are small, yellow, lens-shaped, and retain their germinative properties three years.

The plants are exceedingly prolific, and will thrive in almost any description of soil. Sow at the same time, and thin or transplant to the same distance, as practised in the cultivation of the Tomato. On land where it has been grown, it springs up spontaneously in great abundance, and often becomes troublesome in the garden.

Use.—The fruit has a juicy pulp, and, when first tasted, a pleasant, strawberry-like flavor, with a certain degree of sweetness and acidity intermixed. The after-taste is, however, much less agreeable, and is similar to that of the Common Tomato.

By many the fruit is much esteemed, and is served in its natural state at the table as a dessert. With the addition of lemon-juice, it is sometimes preserved in the manner of the plum, as well as stewed and served like cranberries.

If kept from the action of frost, the fruit retains its natural freshness till March or April.

Purple Alkekengi.

Purple Ground Cherry. Purple Strawberry Tomato. Purple Winter Cherry. Physalis sp.

This species grows naturally and abundantly in some of the Western States. The fruit is roundish, somewhat depressed, about an inch in diameter, of a deep purple color, and enclosed in the membranous covering peculiar to the genus.

Compared with the preceding species, the fruit is more acid, less perfumed, and not so palatable in its crude state, but by many considered superior for preserving. The plant is less pubescent, but has much the same habit, and is cultivated in the same manner.

Tall Alkekengi.

Tall Ground Cherry. Tall Strawberry Tomato. Physalis pubescens.

Stem about four feet high, erect and branching; leaves oval, somewhat triangular, soft and velvety; flowers yellow, spotted with deep purple; fruit yellow, of the size of the Common Yellow Alkekengi, enclosed in an angular, inflated calyx, and scarcely distinguishable from the last named.

It is grown from seeds, which are sown like those of the Tomato. It is later, and much less prolific, than the species first described.