GOURDS AND PUMPKINS. 123 



the question. What would happen, he might have 

 asked, if a Pumpkin weighing a hundred and fifty 

 pounds, as they sometimes do, were to explode like 

 the Squirting Gourd ? Who would be brave enough 

 to face such a vegetable bomb-shell ? At a distance 

 of half a mile we should not be in safety if a Pumpkin 

 were to behave as does the little Ecbalium. There 

 is no a priori reason against the thing. Nature, in 

 her great manufactory, could accomplish it without 

 the smallest difficulty, just as we can make either a 

 parlour pistol or a Krupp gun that will shake the 

 earth and sky. 



There is an exquisite little 

 climber of this order w r hich 

 ought to be more often 

 grown out here : I refer to 

 the Abobra. The long stems 

 rise from a thick perennial 

 stock, as in Bryony : the 

 leafage is particularly neat 

 and trim, and the bright 

 red fruits are ornamental. 

 I doubt whether the Bryony 



Fig. 48. ORNAMENTED GOURD descends as far aS the COast, 



FLASK - and if not we have here 



an excellent substitute. 



M. Ch. Naudin, the late learned Director of the 

 Government Gardens at Antibes, made a special 

 study of this Natural Order. His work on the 

 Exotics cultivated here is well known. 



