ECONOMIC BOTANY OF THE CUCURBIT ACEM. 287 



which I have to notice, with one exception (Zanonia), belong to the 

 first tribe. 



The genus Trichosanthes (thri.r, a hair, and anthos, a flower) are 

 easily distinguished by their prettily -fringed flowers. Five plants 

 belonging to it are known in Western India : T. palmata, T. dioica, 

 T. nervifolia, T cucumerina, and T. anguina ; the last is the well-known 

 snake-gourd (Parul, Marathi ; Padval, Guzerathi), so much used as a 

 vegetable by Europeans and Natives. It may be cooked in various 

 ways : Europeans usually prefer it sliced and boiled, so as to resem- 

 ble a dish of French beans ; prepared in this w T ay it has a very 

 delicate flavour, and retains its bright green colour, except in the 

 cold season, when the addition of a little soda to the water is neces- 

 sary : it is also cut in short lengths and stuffed with minced meat. 

 The natives usually slice it and prepare it with onions and spices ; 

 cooked in this way it forms a very tasty dish, to which meat may 

 be added. 



T. cucumerina (the Rdn-parul or Kadu-parul, common on hedges 

 on Malabar Hill), appears to be the wild form of the snake-gourd ; 

 the flowers are similar, but the fruit is only a few inches in length. 

 The whole plant is extremely bitter and purgative like colocynth ; it 

 is collected, dried, and sold in the bazars as the representative of 

 the drug called in Sanskrit Patola. The Portuguese have named it 

 Sabina (Savine), and the Dutch Kalpert. 



T. dioica is not a native of the Konkan, but in Guzerat it occurs 

 in two forms — the wild or Kudva-padval and the cultivated or sweet 

 variety. The first is used throughout Northern India, Bengal, and 

 Guzerat as the representative of the Patola or Patolaka of Sans- 

 krit writers, which is so named from its fruit having the shape of 

 a " mussel shell." This resemblance is sufficiently obvious, the 

 fruit being from two to three inches long, oblong, acute, and fre- 

 quently slightly curved. In medicinal properties it resembles T. cucu- 

 merina. The cultivated variety is a favourite vegetable in Bengal, 

 Northern India, and Guzerat ; it is free from bitterness, the small 

 fruits are stuffed with spices and fried or curried, and the young 

 shoots are dressed as greens. I have tried to grow the plant from 

 Bengal seed, but it does not flourish in the red soil of Malabar 

 Hill. 



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