Lycopersicon hybrid. Drawn at the University of California, Davis. The common tomato derives from the South American species Lycopersicum esculentum, and, from the very outset, has had folkloric reverberations: Lycopersicum translates “wolf peach,” which sounds a little ominous. For centuries, the fruit was considered poisonous, dangerous, and imbued with mysterious and evil qualities. We now know better. The rest of the tomato plant is definitely poisonous. Kingsbury, in his Poisonous Plants of the U.S. and Canada, refers to a number of instances where livestock have been poisoned by eating tomato vines. —Henry Evans
124 copies were printed and sell for $300 each.