172 



GOURD. CUCURBITA. 



Natural order, Cucurbitacea. A genus of the Monacia 

 Syngenetia class. 



THE plants of this genus are very nearly allied to those 

 of cucumis ; and there is a great variety of them. 



Gourds were more esteemed by the ancients than 

 either melons or cucumbers. The Greeks called them 

 KoAoxo'vda i$co8ip,o, Colocyntha Edulis, to distinguish them 

 from the wild or bitter gourd, called Colocynthi or Co/o- 

 quintidfi ; the Romans named it Cucurbit a, because it 

 will turn away or grow crooked, when it meets any thing 

 in its passage. 



Pliny has minutely described them as different from the 

 pompion or cucumber. He says, " they are employed for 

 more purposes, and are more useful than the former fruit. 

 When properly dressed," he says, " they are a light, mild, 

 and wholesome food. The young and tender stalks were 

 dressed anil served up to table as a good dish ; and the 

 fruit of those that climbed up trees, or walls, or on the 

 frames of arbours, were better food than those which crept 

 on the ground. They have of late been much used for 

 pots and pitchers ;" but long before, they had been used as 

 barrels to keep wine in. Both the wild and the garden- 

 gourd were much used in medicine by the Romans, who 

 also employed the seeds as a charm to cure the ague. 

 (Pliny, 1. xx. c. 3.) 



Gerard says, " the pulp, or meat of the gourd, used as 

 a poultice, mitigates all hot swellings, and takes away the 

 head-ache and the inflammation of the eyes *' 



