TOMATO, or LOVE APPLE (Lycopersicum esculenturn), a plant of the natural order Solanacem, so named by Tournefort, but subsequently combined by Linnaeus with the genus Solanum, now, however, recognized as a distinct genus under the name of the earlier bot anist. It is distinguished from Solanum by the stamens having the anthers con nected by a thin membrane, and by their cells opening in longitudinal slits on the sides, not in pores at the apex as in that genus. The fruit is fleshy, usually red or yellow. The tomato is one of a genus of several species, all natives of South America, chiefly on the Peruvian side. It is the only species in cultivation in Eu rope, into which it was brought by the Spaniards in 1583. In the warmer coun tries of Europe, the United States and other countries in which the summer is warm and prolonged, it has long been cultivated for the excellent qualities of the fruit as an article of diet.
Though it was introduced into Great Britain as early as 1596, the consumption of its fruit there is still small as com pared with some other European coun tries and America. Like its near relative the potato, the tomato is subject to at tacks of phytophthora—the potato-dis ease fungus, and the fruit is liable to a disease also of fungus origin, which causes considerable loss to inexperienced growers, but rarely attack the plants of those who understand their treatment under glass. Its use in any way as food is considered beneficial in affections of the liver, indigestion, and diarrhoea. The word tomato is derived from the Span ish-American name tamate, and the Eng lish name love apple has arisen from its supposed aphrodisiac properties.