112 PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Many useful plants are in this order, some for food, some for 

 medicine ; some are poisonous. Chiefly natives of the tropics. 



CUCURBITA. L. 19. 15. 



From a word that means a vessel, from the use to which the 

 shell of the fruit of some species was anciently applied, as the 

 gourd. The 13 species are chiefly of Indian and African origin ; 

 none indigenous to this part of the country. 



C pepo. L. Pompion, or Pumpkin. From the Levant. 



C. ovifera. L. Egg Squash. From Astracan. 



C. verrucosa. L. Club Squash. From the Levant. 



C. melopepo, L. Flat Squash. From the Levant. 



C. lagenaria. L. Gourd, Calabash. From India. 



C. citrullus. L. Water Melon. From the South of Europe. 



Of most of these species, there are several varieties, differing 

 in some character of importance. Of the Water Melon, some 

 are large, and with large seeds, and of reddish or white color 

 within ; others are small, and have small seeds, and some citron- 

 like, and yet retaining their peculiarities with much constancy. 



Of the Squash, each kind has endless varieties ; and, unless 

 they are cultivated separately, there can be no dependence upon 

 the variety that may be hoped for from the seed. 



The Pompion, or Pumpkin, for so it is written in England as well 

 as in the United States, is more certain, and the varieties are more 

 permanent. The seven-year pumpkin is a great curiosity, for its 

 unchanging nature ; I have seen one which appeared fully sound 

 and unaltered, which was more than three years old, and had 

 stood upon a shelf exposed to all the common changes of the air. 

 The common pumpkin is the standard variety, and too useful to 

 need remark. Its seeds are distinctly diuretic, and, in some de- 

 gree, the fleshy part of the fruit. One variety grows to an enormous 



