name modified in the West Indies to Chocho. One of 
the cultivated plants of American origin unknown in a 
wild state, we owe the earliest European account of it to 
Hernandez, who in the sixteenth century found it used 
as a vegetable in Mexico. It isnot mentioned by Sloane 
as a crop in Jamaica at the close of the seventeenth 
century. From P. Browne, however, we learn of its 
presence and of the use both of its fruits and its root in 
Jamaica by the middle of the eighteenth century, while 
according to Grisebach it had, by the middle of the 
nineteenth century, bécome naturalised there in thickets. 
Its cultivation has now extended to Louisiana, to some 
of the Atlantic and of the Pacific Islands, to Southern 
Europe and Northern Africa, to the East Indies and to 
Australia. In its new homes it is known, according to 
its source, now by its West Indian, now by the Mexican 
name. In suitable climates the Chayote is not difficult 
to grow. It is not fastidious as to soil, but requires 
shelter, as it is susceptible to injury from wind, and must 
be provided with support because, in the Tropics, it 
thrives poorly if left to trail on the ground. The 
perennial root, which resembles a Yam, enables it to be 
cultivated in regions liable to frosts, provided these are 
not so severe as to affect the soil. Where the ground is 
frozen in winter, however, it needs greenhouse conditions, 
and in this country is only to be met with in conserva- 
tories capable of supplying sufficient room for its develop- 
ment. Under such circumstances its vigorous growth 
and its ornamental leaves render it a striking object. 
For the material for our figure we are indebted to 
Mr. R. I. Lynch, by whom it has been supplied from a 
pent which flowered and fruited at the Cambridge 
otanic Garden in 1916. Like many other economic 
species, the Chayote exhibits a considerable degree of 
variation in shape of leaf, length and density of raceme, 
indumentum and length of neck of ovary, as well as in 
form, colour and armature of fruit. It is not at present 
possible to estimate the significance or taxonomic value 
of this variability. The germination of the solitary 
seed presents some features of interest. At maturity the 
seed is enclosed in the fruit, but prior to germination it 
grows so that the tips of the cotyledons extend further 
