GARDEN VEGETABLES AND FLOWERS 325 



(Tabasco peppers), or long, cylindrical pods, are very strongly 

 peppery. The small kinds (Chiles or chillies) are those chiefly 

 used by southern nations, and can be seen drying over the 

 doors of country houses all over Mexico, Central and South 

 America, and in southern Europe and Asia. Persons get 

 used to eating these peppers very "hot" (as in the "Ta- 

 basco pepper sauce"). The red pepper is very much less 

 injurious than the black and white peppers of India, which 

 should be used only in great moderation. The peppers and 

 eggplants are sown, set out, and grown, just like tomatoes. 



Cucumber. The cucumber is one of the oldest known 

 vegetables, having been cultivated in China for at least 

 three thousand years. It is usually eaten unripe and raw, 

 either as salad or pickle. Sometimes (as in Canada) it is 

 eaten out of the hand like an apple, also cooked like squash. 

 Raw cucumber is rather difficult to digest, though less so 

 when pickled quite young, and the small kind, called gherkin, 

 is often used for this purpose. Cucumber vines are allowed 

 to run on the ground, thus forming circles six or eight feet 

 across; therefore the plants must be grown at that distance 

 apart. 



Pumpkins and squashes are closely related plants, differ- 

 ing in size, shape, and the color and quality of their flesh, 

 which in some is very sweet, in others almost tasteless, as 

 in the early white squashes and the eight-sided one called 

 vegetable marrow. The summer squashes, with yellow flesh, 

 are quite sweet and well-flavored, as is also the pumpkin ? 

 from which pumpkin pies are made. This is also grown in 

 large quantities in fields, as winter food for stock; mostly 

 between rows of maize, where it makes most of its growth 

 after the corn is harvested. Squash and pumpkin vines 

 run much farther than cucumbers do, and have large, showy, 

 yellow flowers. 



