OBSERVATIONS UPON THE PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. 301 



a weight of one hundred and fifty pounds. One has been grown in England 

 which weighed two hundred and forty-six pounds. 



Squashes indigenous to tropical America were cultivated by the Indians long 

 before the occupation of this continent by the wliites. 



THE CUCURBITACE^ 



are a small, but very useful order of the vegetable kingdom, numbering about 

 three hundred and fifty species, which are chiefly natives of warm regions. 

 The most valuable species are the squash, the pumpkin, the cucumber, the 

 water-melon, the musk-melon, and the gourd, of all which there are numerous 

 varieties. 



These plants are generally herbaceous, and trailing or climbing by means of 

 tendrils. Their stems, leaf-stalks, tendrils, and fruits are often hollow, and 

 their tissues very soft and succulent. 



The flowers are usually large, and either yellow or white, and of two or three 

 sorts on the same plant. The fruit is commonly a pepo, the structure of which 

 is familiar to all. 



The following considerations suggested the idea of experimenting with the 

 mammoth squash : 



First, It is a Avell-known fact that beans, acorns, and other seeds often lift 

 comparatively heavy masses of earth in forcing their way up to the light in 

 the process of germination. 



Second, We have all heard how common mushrooms have displaced flagging 

 stones, many years since, in Basingstoke, and, more recently, in Worcester, 

 England. In the latter case, only a few weeks ago, a gentleman noticing that 

 a stone in the walk near his residence had been disturbed, went for the police, 

 under the impression that burglars were preparing some plot against him. 

 Upon turning up the stone, which weighed eighty pounds, the rogues were 

 discovered in the shape of three giant mushrooms. 



Tliird, Bricks and stones are ofteu displaced by the growth of the roots of 

 shade trees in streets. Cellar and other walls are frequently injured in a simi- 

 lar way. 



Fourth, Tiiere is a common belief that the growing roots of trees frequently 

 rend asunder rocks on which they stand, by penetrating and expanding within 

 their crevices. 



Having never heard of any attempt to measure the expansive force of a 

 growing plant, we determined to experiment in this direction. 



We were surprised, last year, in testing the pressure exerted by the sap of 

 various trees, to find that a black birch root, detached from the tree, was able 

 to force water to the height of eighty-six feet. We were therefore somewhat 

 prepared for an exhibition of considerable power, but the results of our trials 

 have, nevertheless, been most astonishing. 



•At first we thought of trying the expansive force of some small, hard, green 

 fruit, such as a hickory-nut or a pear, but the expansion was so slow, and the 

 attachment of the fruit to the tree so fragile, that this idea was abandoned. 

 The squash, growing on the ground with great rapidity and to an enormous 

 size, seemed, on the whole, the best fruit for the experiment. 



Accordingly, seeds having been obtained from Mr. J. J. H. Gregory of Mar- 

 blehead, they were planted on the first of July in one of the propagating pits 

 of the Durfee Plant-House, where the temperature and moisture could be 

 easily controlled. A rich bed of compost from a S2)ent hot-bed was prepared, 



