Aubergine

Aubergine (diminutive of Fr. auberge, a variant of alberge, a kind of peach), or Egg Plant (Solanum melongena, var. ovigerum), a tender annual widely cultivated in the warmer parts of the earth, and in France and Italy, for the sake of its fruits, which are eaten as a vegetable. The seed should be sown early in February in a warm pit, where the plants are grown till shifted into 8-in. or 10-in. pots, in well-manured soil. Liquid manure should be given occasionally while the fruit is swelling; about four fruits are sufficient for one plant. The French growers sow them in a brisk heat in December, or early in January, and in March plant them out four or eight in a hot-bed with a bottom heat of from 60° to 68°, the sashes being gradually more widely opened as the season advances, until at about the end of May they may be taken off. The two main branches which are allowed are pinched to induce laterals, but when the fruits are set all young shoots are taken off in order to increase their size. The best variety is the large purple, which produces oblong fruit, sometimes reaching 6 or 7 in. in length and 10 or 12 in. in circumference. The fruit of the ordinary form almost exactly resembles the egg of the domestic fowl. It is also grown as an ornamental plant, for covering walls or trellises; especially the black-fruited kind.