GREEK VALE1UAN. 



Cowper appears in the following passage to have con- 

 founded the Gourd with the cucumber : 



" To raise the prickly and green-coated gourd, 

 So grateful to the palate, and, when rare, 

 So coveted ; else base and disesteemed, 

 Food for the vulgar merely * ; is an art 

 That toiling ages have but just matured." 



Thevenot says that, in the island of Delhi, the horses are 

 rubbed with Gourd blossoms to prevent the flies from 

 teasing them : and that it is an excellent remedy, provided 

 the grooms renew it sufficiently often f. 



GREEK VALERIAN. 



POLEMONIUM C^RULEUM. 



POLEMONIACEE. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Jacob's Ladder ; Ladder to Heaven. 



THIS plant has no affinity to the valerian : it has only 

 some little resemblance in the shape of the leaves. The 

 flowers are pretty, blue or white, and open about the 

 end of May, producing a constant succession throughout 

 the summer. The leaves, too, become daily more luxu- 

 riant, to the very end of autumn. It is a native of Asia 



* A new species of Gourd has been very lately introduced from 

 Persia under the name of vegetable marrow ; the flesh, when not fully 

 ripe, having a peculiar softness, and, when peeled and boiled, re- 

 sembling the buttery quality of the buerre pears. It is easily culti- 

 vated, and promises to be a great acquisition to our tables. These 

 Gourds are generally brought to market, when too much grown ; pro- 

 bably on account of the profit ; but those who cultivate them in their 

 own gardens pluck them when they are about the size of a hen's egg, 

 or at the most, the egg of a turkey ; and the young fruit is far supe- 

 rior to the old. 



t Thevenot, Voyage de Levant, Part iii. p. 137. 



