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OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



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405 



got four or five leaves, they should be transplanted into holes 

 made upon an old dunghill, or some such place, allowing them 

 ample room, as some of them will run to a great distance. The 

 first species requires to be more tenderly treated than the 

 others, in order to procure ripe fruit; the seeds therefore 

 should be sown upon a moderate hot- bed in April, and the 

 plants afterwards planted each into a penny pot, and plunged 

 into a very moderate hot-bed to bring them forward, but 

 must not nevertheless be tenderly treated, for if they have 

 not a large share of free air admitted to them every day, they 

 will draw up weak. When the plants are grown too large to 

 remain in the pots, holes must be dug wherever they are de- 

 signed to grow, and three or four barrows-full of hot dung 

 be put into each; these must be covered with earth, in which 

 the plants must be set, and covered with hand-glasses till 

 they run out. There are some persons who place these plants 

 by the sides of arbours, over which they train the vines, so 

 that in a short time they will cover the whole arbour, and 

 afford a strong shade : others plant them near walls, pales, 

 or hedges, to which they fasten the vines, and train them to a 

 considerable height : the orange-shaped gourd isthe sort that 

 is commonly so planted, for the ornament of its fruit, which 

 has a pretty effect when seen at some distance. All these 

 plants require a large supply of water in dry weather. 



2. Cucurbita Hispida ; Rough Gourd. Leaves angular ; 

 stem and petioles hispid. Stem furrowed, climbing, covered 

 with ash-coloured hairs; leaves petioled, having five angles, 

 or sublobed with straight angles, nerved, villoseon both sides ; 

 petioles round, hispid, a finger's length ; flowers axillary, 

 very closely set with ferruginous hairs, the lower a finger's 

 length, the upper shorter; tendrils simple, bifid or trifid; 

 caiix and peduncle very closely hirsute,with ferruginous hairs. 

 Native of Japan, where it flowers in September. 



3. Cucurbita Ovifera ; Egg Gourd. Leaves lobed ; fruits 

 obovate ; tendrils in sevens, digitated. The herb and flowers 

 are very like the Pompion, but not so rough ; the leaves are 

 not many-cleft, neither is the fruit bitter ; the tendrils are 

 straight, and end in small spiral tendrils, usually seven in 

 number ; fruit smooth and even, the size and form of a hen's 

 egg, with the rind so hard as to be scarcely cut with a knife, 

 painted with ten milk-white longitudinal lines. Native of 

 Persia, in the neighbourhood of Astracan. 



4. Cucurbita Pepo; Pompion, or Pumpkin Gourd. Leaves 

 lobed ; fruits glossy. Stems thick, angular, extremely hispid, 

 branched, climbing by means of bifid tendrils, or spreading 

 to the distance of forty feet, so that a single plant, if properly 

 encouraged, and all the side-branches bepermitted to remain, 

 will overspread twenty rods of ground : leaves cordate, large, 

 roundish, angular, toothed, wrinkled, hairy on both sides, on 

 alternate, thick, flexuose, hirsute petioles ; flowers yellow, 

 lateral, solitary, on peduncles resembling the petioles, but 

 shorter; teeth of the calix large, gashed, waved, reflex; fruit 

 roundish, ovate-globular or oblong-ovate, pule green on the 

 outside, and commonly hispid with bristly hairs ; within 

 having a spongy insipid white pulp or flesh, divided in the 

 middle into three primary cells, each of which is double, and 

 again subdivided into the proper cells of the seeds, which are 

 very numerous, horizontal, elliptic, of a compressed lens- 

 shape. The fruit varies in form and size ; two hundred and 

 sixty of them, on an average the size of half a peck, have 

 been produced from a single plant in New England. In Eu- 

 rope, the Pompion, which we have corrupted to Pumpkin, is 

 frequently planted by the country people on their dunghills, 

 and suffered to trail at length over the grass of an orchard, 

 When the fruit is ripe, they cut a hole in the side, take out 

 the seeds, fill the void with sliced apples, adding a little 



VOL. i. 34. 



sugar and spice, and bake it ; but it is esteemed hard of di- 

 gestion. The Eastern nations reckon it to be the most whole- 

 some of its genus, and give it to the sick as a cooling diuretic. 

 In England, Pompions were formerly called English Melons, 

 or, corruptly, Millions; and the true Melons, Musk Melons. 

 The Pompion flowers from June to August ; but its native 

 place is not known. 



5. Cucurbita Verrucosa; Warted Gourd. Leaves lobed ; 

 fruits knobby-warted. The plant, flower, and seeds of this, 

 are the same as in the Pompion ; but the fruit is smaller, with 

 a harder and almost woody rind. It is very common in most 

 parts of America, where it is cultivated as a culinary fruit : 

 the form and size are various, being round, flat, shaped like 

 a bottle, or oblong : the rind becomes white when the fruit is 

 ripe, and is covered with large protuberances or warts. It is 

 commonly gathered when half grown, and boiled by the in- 

 habitants of America, to eat as sauce with their meat. In 

 England it is cultivated merely as a curiosity. 



6. Cucurbita Melopepo ; Squash Gourd. Leaves lobed ; 

 stem erect; fruits flatted, knobby. Stem roundish, hairy, 

 procumbent or climbing, with trifid tendrils ; branches many, 

 long ; leaves lobed, angular serrate, hairy, alternate on long 

 petioles ; flowers yellow, on lateral one-flowered peduncles ; 

 segments of the calix linear, spatulate, spreading ; antherae 

 linear, distinct, erect ; fruit large, reddish, yellow or yellow- 

 ish white within and without, commonly roundish, often 

 flatted at top and bottom, always torulose, sometimes ovate, 

 seldom warted. Linneus seems to be mistaken in describing 

 the tendrils on the stem as neither climbing nor procumbent; 

 for Loureiro informs us, that in India it is always scandent 

 when a support is at hand, but when there is none, always 

 procumbent. Mr. Miller also remarks, that it often grows 

 with a strong bushy erect stalk, without putting out runners 

 from the sides like the other sorts, but that after it has been 

 cultivated a few years in a garden, it will become trailing, 

 and that seeds out of the same fruit have produced erect 

 plants, bearing the same fruit with the parent in one garden; 

 and trailing plants, with larger fruit of a different shape, in 

 another. It is common in North America, where it is culti- 

 vated like the preceding species us a sauce ; and also in the 

 East Indies and China, The fruit is of great use in long 

 voyages, for it may be kept several months fresh and sweet. 



7. Cucurbita Citrullus; Water Melon. Leaves many-parted. 

 Stem round, striated, long, branched, hairy, procumbent, 

 diffused, with lateral bifid tendrils ; flowers yellow, on short, 

 solitary, lateral peduncles; fruit large, smooth, round, ob- 

 long, a foot and a half in length, within watery, sweet, very 

 red or pale,- seeds black or rufous. The fruit varies much in 

 form and colour : it serves the Egyptians for meat, drink, and 

 physic, and is eaten by them in abundance during the season, 

 which is from the beginning of May until the overflowing of 

 the Nile, that is, to the end of July or the beginning of 

 August. It is the only medicine the common people use in 

 ardent fevers, for which purpose they have a variety, which 

 is softer and more juicy than the common sort ; when this is 

 very ripe, or almost putrid, they collect the juice, and mix it 

 with rose-water and a little sugar. Europeans should be 

 cautious in eating this fruit, for when taken in the heat of 

 the day whilst the body is warm, colics and other bad 

 consequences often ensue ; and it is well known that worms 

 are a very prevalent complaint while this fruit is in season, 

 (rerarde calls the Water Melon citruls, cucumber citruls, and 

 pome citruls; Parkinson the citrull, or Turkey Million. The 

 WaterMelon is cultivated in the warm countriesof Europe and 

 also in Asia, Africa, and America, where it is greatly esteemed 

 for its wholesome cooling quality. Culture. The beat sorts 



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