192 



CUCURBITACEOUS PLANTS. 



a lapse of more than seventy-five years, during which time 

 it must have experienced great diversity of treatment and 

 culture, it still can be found in its original type ; having 

 the same form, color, size, and the same thickness and 

 quality of flesh, which it possessed at the time of its intro- 

 duction. 



Common Plant of vigorous, stocky habit, extending 



Yellow Field y 



Pumpkin, twelve feet and upwards in length ; fruit 



rounded, usually a little more deep than broad, flattened 

 at the ends, and rather regularly, and more or less promi- 

 nently, ribbed. Its size is much affected by soil, season, and 



the purity of the seed. 

 Average specimens will 

 measure about fourteen 

 inches in length, and 

 eleven or twelve inches 

 in diameter. Color rich, 

 clear orange - yellow ; 

 skin, or rind, if the fruit 

 is well matured, rather 

 dense and hard ; flesh, 

 variable in thickness, but 

 averaging about an inch 

 and a half, of a yellow color, generally coarse-grained, and 

 often stringy, but sometimes of fine texture, dry, and of good 

 quality ; seeds of medium size, cream-yellow. 



The cultivation of the Common Yellow Field Pumpkin in 

 this country is almost coeval with its settlement. For a long 

 period, few, if any, of the numerous varieties of squashes, 

 now so generally disseminated, Were known ; and the Pump- 

 kin was not only extensively employed as a material for pies, 

 but was much used as a vegetable, in the form of squash, at 

 the table. During the struggle for national independence, 



Common Yellow Field Pumpkin. 



