62 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



Here we need only consider those members of it which 

 have a value as decorative garden plants. 



Tropical Gourds are always well represented in one of the 

 stoves at Kew. They are trained to wires under the roof, 

 where they get plenty of sunshine ; and being planted in a 

 border of rich soil, pretty much as Cucumbers and Melons 

 are, they grow and fruit freely. Formerly they were grown 

 in the Palm House, their stems being trained to upright 

 rods reaching from floor to roof. Most of the species cul- 

 tivated are raised annually from seeds sown in February, 

 the young plants being grown in pots until they are half 

 a yard or so high and are strong enough to be planted in 

 the border. This is about 18 inches wide and deep, and 

 is formed of turf and good loam and manure on a slate 

 shelf about a yard above the floor. It will be seen from 

 these particulars that the treatment is essentially that prac- 

 tised by the market grower for Cucumbers. That it is 

 successful will be admitted by anyone who has seen the 

 plants in fruit at Kew in autumn. They include species of 

 the following genera : Benincasa, Citrullus, Cucumis, Cucur- 

 bita, Gurania, Lagenaria, Luffa, Momordica, Sechium, Tel- 

 fairia, and Trichosanthes. 



Sixty years ago Sir William Hooker wrote : " One of the 

 tropical stoves at Kew has been rendered attractive for 

 some years past by the introduction of various cucurbita- 

 ceous plants trained against the roof. It is a family of 

 plants that has been too much neglected, for they present 

 no small degree of beauty in their flowers, and their fruits 

 are remarkable in their size, or form, or colour, and often 

 their utility." These words are just as true to-day as they 

 were sixty years ago. How many gardeners who have to 

 furnish large conservatories ever think of including cucur- 



