GREEN VEGETABLES. 



53 



figure (fig. 22) which he calls the Spanish cucumber; raised from seed, 

 " not long since sent out from Spain." It grows, he adds, to a foot 

 in length, is green below, but yellow in the sun, with spots and lines 

 of divers colours, but it is represented smooth, and not rough like a 

 cucumber. The Spaniards might well have received this from Mexico. 

 The figure would answer very well for a vegetable marrow, now known 

 as Cucurbita ovifera, L., and if A. de Candolle be correct, it may be 

 an American variety of Cucurbita Pepo, the pumpkin ; while the gourds 

 of Europe are forms of C. maxima. 



FIG. 22. VEGETABLE MARROW FROM GERARD'S "HERBAL" (MISCALLED 

 CUCUMBER), 1597. 



Many small forms of fruits are cultivated of various shapes, as the 

 Turk's Cap, and being forms of the species C. verrucosa, some are 

 warted; others are globular, pear or bottle-shaped, and of different 

 colours some of these were figured by Parkinson (1640). Professor 

 Church says of the vegetable marrow that " although ine fruit is 

 very watery, yet it contains more nutritive matter than its close ally 

 the cucumber. The percentages are as follows: Water 94.8, albu- 

 minoids 0.6, sugar, starch, fat and cellulose, 4.1; mineral matter, 0.5. 

 The nutrient ratio is 1 :5, the nutrient value 3.5. 



