BOTTLE GOURDS 339 



the shape and extraordinary dimensions of the fruit of some of its 

 forms, render it a valuable ornamental climbing plant. As it is 

 easily grown, it appears to be cultivated in every part of the world 

 where the climate is warm or temperate. From an early period it 

 has been grown by the Chinese and the Japanese, who possess 

 some varieties of it differing somewhat from those grown in Europe. 

 CULTURE. The Lagenarias are annual plants vegetating very 

 rapidly, and their culture is exceedingly simple. The seed is sown, 

 where the plants are to stand, in May, or plants previously raised 

 in hot-beds or frames may be planted out in the open ground that 

 month. These, of course, will bear sooner than the others. The 

 plants like good, rich, well-manured soil, and plentiful waterings, 

 although not absolutely necessary, will help to increase the size and 



Club Gourd. Siphon Gourd (^ natural size). 



beauty of the fruit. No variety of Bottle Gourd ripens its fruit 

 regularly in the climate of Paris. 



USES. The young fruit is eaten in some countries like the 

 Vegetable Marrow, but is not very desirable for table use, and the plant 

 should be regarded as purely ornamental. Its rapid growth renders 

 it valuable for quickly covering trellises, arbours, trunks of trees, 

 dead walls, and other bare places. The leaves and all the green 

 parts of the plant, when bruised, give out a very strong and 

 disagreeable odour, but the flowers, on the contrary, are scented 

 almost like Jasmine. 



Club Gourd. Fruit very long, sometimes over 3^ ft. in length, 

 almost cylindrical, but only about half as thick in the half next the 

 stalk as it is in the other half. Sometimes the extremity is greatly 

 swollen. All the forms of this plant, however, are extremely 

 variable, and as changeable as the whims of amateurs. 



Siphon Gourd. The fruit of this variety is swollen at the 

 extremity into a spherical or slightly flattened enlargement, 8 to 



