CHAP. I. CULINARY VEGETABLES. 129 



malees usually throw wood-ashes over the leaves to protect 

 them, but this obviously is very injurious to the plants. If, 

 however, the plants can be preserved through the earlier period 

 of their growth, a change seems to take place in the nature of 

 their juices, insomuch that the young leaves are no longer liable 

 to be attacked by this insect, and in the course of a week or two 

 they will come into flower. When they have set as many 

 fruits as the vine will bear, the flowers upon the plants should 

 be removed. They require constant and copious watering, and 

 occasionally with liquid manure. 



Care must be taken to gather the Gourds whilst tender and 

 ready, as they very rapidly become hard and woody. Miss Leslie, 

 however, observes : " The Green or Summer Squash is best when 

 the outside is beginning to turn yellow, as it is then less watery 

 and insipid than when younger." 



In the North- West Provinces the sowing of the seed must not 

 be made before the end of February, as the plants will not live 

 in the Cold season in that part of India. 



Cucurbita maxima. 



RED GOURD. 



Sufuree Koomra Lai Koomra. 



A brownish-red, globular-shaped, bluntly-ribbed Gourd, of 

 enormous size, cultivated extensively by the natives for sale 

 in the bazars, where it is cut up and sold in slices ; in my 

 opinion the most agreeable far of any of the Indian Gourds. 

 Dressed and cooked with boiled beef, as Carrots are, it can 

 hardly be distinguished from them either in appearance or 

 flavour. An annual; seed sown in the Bains; vegetable in 

 use during the Cold season ; not often cultivated in gardens. 



Trichosanthes anguina. 



SNAKE-GOURD CLUB-GOURD. 



Chichinga. 



A large, greenish-white, club-formed Gourd, of the length of 

 a man's arm, and about four inches thick ; of exceedingly rapid 

 growth ; eaten, sliced and dressed in the manner of French 

 Beans during the Cold season. 



