20 



QUARTERMASTER CORPS 



green fruits (not more than half ripe) may be cooked and 

 eaten; at this stage they make an excellent vegetable; the 

 tender shoots, flowers, and young leaves may also be cooked 

 and eaten. The mature fruits are too tough to eat. One spe- 

 cies ((A), fig. 30) has sharply angled fruits, the other (B) 

 has smooth fruits suggesting a smooth cucumber. The fruits 

 of the wild form, occurring in thickets especially near the 

 sea, are smaller than those of the cultivated forms. Ix)cal 

 names: Patola, petola, ketola, hestru, blestru, motini, pacho- 



OlIlOM •■It t^ /f 



Figure 31. — ^Balsam vine {Momordica charantia). 



44 



