PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. 19 



The 'last weight was not clearly raised, though it was car- 

 ried ten clays, on account of tllfe failure of the harness irons, 

 which bent at the corners under the enormous pressure of 

 two and a half tons, and consequently broke through the 

 rind of the squash. It was not feasible to remove the har- 

 ness and substitute for it a stouter one, on account of its 

 being imbedded in the substance of the squash, which grew 

 up through the meshes of the harness, forming protuberances 

 an inch and a half high and overlying the iron bands. When, 

 on the seventh of November, the harness was removed in 

 order to take a plaster cast of the squash, it was necessary 

 to cut the straps with a cold-chisel, sometimes into several 

 pieces, and draw them out endways. 



The growing squash adapted itself to whatever space it 

 could find as readily as if it had been a mass of caoutchouc ; 

 nor did it ever show the slightest tendency to crack, except 

 in the epidermis. This would often open in minute seams, 

 from which a turbid mucilaginous fluid exuded. In the 

 morning drops of this would frequently bedew the protuber- 

 ances like drops of perspiration. In the sunshine these dried 

 up and fell off as minute globules, resembling gum Arabic. 



The lifting power was greatest after midnight, when the 

 growth of the vine and the exhalation from the foliage was 

 least. 



The material out of which the squash was formed was 

 elaborated in the leaves during the day-time, and transferred 

 through the vine to the stem. Through this it was imbibed 

 by the living, growing cells of the squash, which were con- 



