GOUIID. 181 



de Dioscoride, crisocome liniere is usually propagated by 

 parting the roots, which should be done in autumn, soon 

 after the roots decay, in order that they may have time 

 to establish themselves in their new situations before the 

 winter. This species will live in the open air. It must 

 be sparingly watered. When touched, it gives out a fine 

 aromatic scent. 



The shrubby kinds are in blossom nearly all the year 

 round. The flowers are yellow in all the species. 



GOURD. 



CUCURBITA. 



CUCURBITACE^E. MONOECIA SYNGENESIA, 



French, la courge. Italian, la zucca : at Rome, cucuzza : in the 

 Brescia, suca, co, melona. 



THE Orange-Gourd, and other small varieties, which 

 can be trained round a stake and kept within bounds, will 

 have a pretty effect in a balcony in the summer. They 

 may be sown towards the close of April, and should be 

 watered every evening in dry summer weather. They are 

 annual plants. 



The larger species of Gourd are very useful to their 

 countrymen. The Bottle Gourd named by the French 

 la calebasse ; la gourde; le Jlacon ; la calebasse d'herbe ; 

 and by the Italians la zucca longa ; la mazza d'Ercole 

 [Hercules's club] which the Arabians call charrah, 

 is, by the poor, boiled in vinegar and eaten. Some- 

 times they make it into a kind of pudding, by filling the 

 shell with rice and meat. In Jamaica the shells are in 

 general use as water cups, and frequently serve the negroes 

 and poorer sort of white people for bottles. The largest 

 variety of this species is cultivated for the sake of the 



