SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 69 



that a vine of the mammoth variety grew above fourteen 

 inches in twenty-four hours. Sometimes, during a season 

 of drouth, a surprising tenacity of life is displayed. I well 

 remember one piece of vines growing on a shallow spot 

 above a ledge, where, during a season of severe drouth, I 

 could find nothing but earth as dry as dust, close down to 

 the ledge ; yet these vines, for more than a week, would 

 wilt and apparently dry up .each day, to renew themselves 

 with the dews over night. I have very rarely (and I have 

 often examined them for this,) found the tendrils of the 

 squash vine seizing on the Apple of Peru, (Stramonium,) a 

 large weed quite common near the sea shore, of disagree- 

 able odor and poisonous in its nature, w T hen taken inter- 

 nally. Now, the Apple of Peru is very common in our 

 squash fields, and presents the most stable support of all the 

 weeds of the field. Then why this apparent antipathy ? 



I have endeavored to make my little treatise as complete 

 a manual as possible. If, from the directions given, so de- 

 licious a vegetable as the squash shall be more generally 

 and more successfully cultivated, I shall be well pleased. 



