--- title: Times and Seasons description: Issues of 1840 to 1841. authors: - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints editors: - Ebenezer Robinson - Don Carlos Smith - Smith, Joseph, Jr. - Taylor, John collections: - periodicals tags: - newspaper - times-and-seasons - nauvoo - nineteenth-century periodical: Times and Seasons volume: 2 number: 5 published: 1841-01-01 publisher: E. Robinson and D. C. Smith; later John Taylor publisher_place: Commerce and Nauvoo, Illinois language: en type: article reference: "“Its Botanical Character,” *Times and Seasons* 2, no. 5 (January 1, 1841): 268." printed_title: ITS BOTANICAL CHARACTER. source: url: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1841-01-01_2_5 transcription: Text from the Centerplace.org transcription (https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v2n05.htm), with its page breaks; this Internet Archive scan is the reference copy (its OCR was used only as a witness for OCR repair) identifier: per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1841-01-01_2_5 start_page: 268 end_page: 268 curator_note: A Mormon newspaper published by the church in Nauvoo; included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement. rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1841 (Nauvoo, Illinois); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States source: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1841-01-01_2_5 publication_year: 1841 --- # Its Botanical Character In reference to its Botanical character, the following accounts are given by the most eminent Botanists, of our country: "Stem armed: leaves pinnatifid, gashed: racemes two-parted, leafless; fruit, glabrous, torulose." Porfessor [Professor] Eaton, of the Rensselaer College. "This is an annual plant, with jagged or unequally winged leaves, which grows two or three feet high, and about the blossoms and leaves, appears somewhat like the potatoe [potato]. It bears a large glossy berry, deeply furrowed, which is at first green, but when ripe, turns to a beautiful red, similar to the great pepper (Capsicum,") Dr. Comstock "Stem unarmed, herbaceus:[herbaceous]: leaves interruptedly pinnate, cut: clusters deeply divided, leafless: fruit smooth, variously shaped, scarlet or orange. The root is fibrous. Herb of rank growth, weak and decumbent, foetid glutinous, downy-Leafets [leaflets], corsely [coarsely] cut, and toothed with a double series of smallstalked intermediate ones: Flowers yellow, in large divided bunches. Fruit shining, pendulous, very ornamental." Rev. Dr. Rees. It is green at the first and of a yellowish red color; the flowers resemble those of nightshade, the fruit is fleshy and soft; it contains many flat whitish seeds in a juicy pulp." Dr. Parr.-It is not a solanum. No, this is a blunder of Linnaeus. As early as 150 years ago, Tournefort and other botanists, made of it the genus lycopersicum, totally different from solanum by having a many-celled berry, (the solanum is two celled.) and from 6 to 12 parts to the calyx; corolla 6-12 stamens-solanum has these parts in 5s. De Candolle, and all correct botannists [botanists] now call the tomato Lycopersicum sativum. It is the solanum lycopersicum of Linnaeus. Stem herbacuoue [herbaceous], unthorny, branched, spreading; leaves unequal, pinnated; follicles unequal lanciuate; annual plant, with yellow flowers, and fruit yellow or orange." Prof. Rafinesque.