48 THE USES OF PLANTS. 



The VEGETABLE MARROW (Cucurbita ovifera, L.), 

 probably, like the Pumpkin, a variety of the common 

 Gourd (C. maxima, Duch.), is, like other Cucurbita- 

 ceous fruits, eaten unripe, but cooked. 



The CUCUMBER (Cucumis sativa, L.) is generally 

 eaten raw. Very young cucumbers are pickled, 

 under the name of gherkins. Vegetable marrows 

 and cucumbers are very largely cultivated in Eng- 

 land. 



The CHAYOTE, or Choco (Sechium edule, Sw.), 

 the fruits of a Cucurbitaceous plant of Mexico and 

 Venezuela, are occasionally sold in Covent Garden. 

 They are about four inches long, oblong, tuberculate, 

 and yellowish. 



OKRO, Okra, Bendi-kai (Canarese and Tamil, 

 used in Southern India), or Gombo (French colonies), 

 the unripe fruits of Hibiscus esculentus, L. (Abel- 

 moschus esculentus, Guill. and Perr.), may also be 

 mentioned here. Cultivated throughout the tropics, 

 and round the Mediterranean, it has been introduced, 

 mainly in tins from the United States, during the 

 last twelve years, as a vegetable. It is a taper- 

 ing, 5-ioangled, loculicidal capsule, 4 to 10 inches 

 long.* 



FUNGI, in spite of Dr. Badham's ' Esculent 

 Funguses' (1847), an d many other similar works, 

 are still most imperfectly appreciated as food in 

 this country, barely half a dozen species coming to 

 Covent Garden. They are undoubtedly somewhat 



* ' Encycl. Brit., 3 vol. xi, sub voce ' Gumbo ;' * Pharmaco- 

 graphia, 3 p. 86 ; Archer, ' Econ. Botany,' p. 142 ; * Kew Museum 

 Guide/ p. 17. 



