GOURDS 63 



bitaceous plants among the climbers ? Yet there are few 

 more effective objects than a Snake Gourd when in fruit, 

 or a Jove's Club, or a Bottle Gourd, or a Hedgehog Gourd. 

 When Momordica mixta first fruited in the Water Lily House 

 some twenty years ago it created quite a sensation. The male 

 plant (some of the species are dioecious) had been grown 

 at Kew many years before a female was obtained. Both 

 sexes bear large, handsome, star-shaped flowers, creamy- 

 white with an eye-like blotch of purple ; but the glory of 

 this Gourd is its fruit, which is larger than an ostrich egg, 

 and, when ripe, a glowing crimson. Another pretty species 

 of the same genus is M. involucrata, which has thin stems, 

 Ampelopsis-like leaves, bell-shaped flowers, and ovate fruits 

 2 inches long, coloured scarlet. M. Charantia and M. muri- 

 cata have equally attractive fruit, and when they split open 

 they reveal rows of large seeds of purple colour. Surely 

 the Snake Gourds (Trichosanthes), with their white, deep- 

 fringed flowers, are worth a place among pretty flowered 

 plants ; moreover, when their long, writhing, brightly 

 coloured fruits are ripe, they are as fantastic as they are 

 decorative. 



The great variety of form in the fruits of the Gourd 

 family is indicated by their popular names, such as Apple, 

 Orange, Pear, Gooseberry, Bottle, Custard, Club, Snake, 

 Turban, &c. Nathaniel Hawthorne has said that if ever 

 Providence made him wealthy, he would have a service of 

 plate or porcelain wrought in the shape of Gourds of his 

 own growing. 



A considerable number of Gourds may be cultivated 

 out of doors in this country. Being all sun lovers, they 

 must be allowed all the direct sunlight possible. This can 

 be best managed by training them on rough poles or on 



