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Solanum muricatum, Ait. (S. guatemalense, Hort.). Pepino. Melon Pear. Melon Shrub. Fig. 3629. An erect spineless bushy herb or subshrub 2-3 ft. high, the branches often with rough warty excrescences, and usually glabrous or nearly so: lvs. entire or with slightly undulate margins, rarely ternate, oblong-lanceolate, or ovate, tapering to the more or less margined petiole and also toward the more or less obtuse or sometimes acute apex, the surface sparingly soft-pubescent: fls. in a long-stalked cluster, rather small, the corolla bright blue, deeply 5-lobed, puberulent on the outer surface, inclined or nodding: fr. ovoid or egg-shaped, long-stalked, drooping, yellow overlaid with splashes of violet-purple, 4-6 in. long when cult., flesh yellow and seedless under cult. Said to be a native of Peru and cult. in other parts of Trop. Amer. at temperate elevations. G.F. 5:173. G.C. III. 3:309.—This plant attracted some attention in this country about 25 years ago. It appears to have been intro. into the U. S. from Guatemala in 1882 by Gustav Eisen. A full review of the history and botany was made in Cornell Exp. Bull. No. 37 (1891). The fr. is aromatic, tender, and juicy, and in taste suggests an acid eggplant. In a drawer or box, the fr. may be kept till midwinter. In the N. the seasons are too short to allow the fr. to mature in the open, unless the, plants are started very early. The pepino is properly a cool-season plant, and when grown in pots in a cool or intermediate house will set its frs. freely. It is readily prop. by means of cuttings of the growing shoots. The plant will withstand a little frost.
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