Retrospective Criticism. 495 



zucca santa, or zucca di Gerusalemme, and vulgarly zucca boniffa, which 

 exceeds in goodness all the others. The fruit of the Jerusalem gourd 

 assumes, in ripening, a deep yellow tinge, like the colour of a brick ; in form 

 they might be compared to the zucca lagenaria (bottle gourd), if they were 

 not bent; the pulp is thick, and slightly watery. When ripe, they maybe 

 easily preserved in a dry place, not colder than 2° Reaumur (36^° Fahr.), 

 during the whole winter. Cut in pieces, and fried with butter, they have a 

 very sweet and delicate flavour. 



Size of the Fruit of some Kinds of Gourd in Italy. — The size to which 

 the fruit of some of the Cucurbitaceae arrive in our country, when they 

 are well cultivated, is enormous. If you have read our 105th Agronomo^ il 

 Tanara, the following account must have astonished you : — " It is better 

 to cultivate two plants of this species (speaking of the creeping melon, 

 2)opone i-ampichino), than twenty of the others that are on the ground. First, 

 because one plant produces more melons than ten of the ground species; and 

 I have had one plant which had grown twenty-five to such a size that it was 

 necessary to support them with sticks put under them, besides the boughs 

 upon which they were trained ; and on another plant, near to this, I had one 

 which a large tub (bigo7icio) could not contain ! I sent it to the palace, carried 

 on an ass," &c. How astonished I have been at the immense mass dug up 

 from the batata (Convolvulus Batatas L., Ipomoe^a Batatas Poiret), about 

 which Mr. Hall has written to you from the country of the Illinois (Vol. I. 

 p. 329.) ; and which, when carried to the fire, was scorching at one end, 

 while a man was seated on the other extremity, flourishing his legs about 

 at his ease.* However, I can assure you that, even in Lombardy, when 

 all the circumstances are favourable to the developement of the gourds, it 

 is not unusual to see them so large as to weigh each 120 lbs. (207 lbs. avoir- 

 dupois). Fruit of this size is produced almost entirely from a variety of 

 gourd called vulgarly zucca marina. The cultivation of gourds deserves to 

 be more extensively and carefully practised than it is at present by us (for, 

 to say the truth, it is very limited), on account of their abundant produce, 

 especially of one variety with cylindrical fruit, and yellow pulp and skin. 

 In fat and loamy soils, the fruit of this plant affords an excellent forage for 

 cows in the winter. The seeds, which in every gourd of the above-men- 

 tioned variety generally exceed 500, yield a sweet oil, excellent for the uses 

 of the kitchen; and the stems and overplus leaves make a manure which 

 would much improve our soils. The soils desirable for the cultivation of 

 gourds should be planted with Indian corn ; because the gourds being cul- 

 tivated with that plant in alternate rows, afford sufficient shade to defend 

 it from the heat of summer, which, in dry grounds, often proves fatal to 

 the Indian com. All these advantages are overlooked by our stewards, 

 even as they overlook, from ignorance, many others of the greatest moment. 



Since I have mentioned the batata (Ipomce^a Batatas Poir.), tell me, I 

 beg of you, what success attends its cultivation in England. I tried to 

 grow this plant on the banks of the Lake of Como : the produce was 

 tolerably abundant, although, aiming to introduce it into the agriculture of 

 that district (similarly to what has been doing in Portugal), I had treated 

 it like the potato (5oIanum tuberosum L.). I was very anxious to force 

 it to flower and fruit, imagining that, from the seed, I should have obtained 

 varieties which might be more easily naturalised to our climate than the 

 parent plant ; since, so long as its roots are so delicate as only to be kept 

 in the winter, by being packed in cases, between layers of very dry sand, 

 and placed on the cappa of the kitchen chimney, its cultivation in Lom- 



* Dr. Maurelle also saw, in the Island Latte, batatas as thick as a man's 

 thigh, and 15 ft. long. ( Voi/ages of La Peyroitse, vol. iv. p. 230. Italian 

 transl.) 



