376 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINUDOiM. 



count of the beauty of their flowers. Few of 

 tlie species bear fruit in this country. 



The grenadillas witli which we are best ac- 

 quainted are those of the West India islands, the 

 chief of which are the purpk-fruited (passiflora 

 edulis), the passiflora quadrangularis, and the 

 water-lemon (^ passiflora laurifolia). The first 

 is thus described by Sabine : " The stem is thick 

 and woody, the leaves three-lobed, and of con- 

 siderable size. The flowers, proceeding from the 

 axUla of the leaves, are fragrant, and of a white 

 colour, tinged with purple. The fruit, when 

 unripe, is gi-een ; but as it ripens, changes to a 

 dark livid purple, and much resembles the fruit 

 of the purple egg ])lant. The shape is elli|)tic, 

 an inch and a half in diameter, and two inches 

 from the stalk to the top. The pulp is orange 

 coloured, and the seeds numerous ; the taste acid, 

 and the flavour somewhat like that of the orange. 

 It is a native of the Brazils, was introduced from 

 Portugal, by Boehm, in 1810, and has produced 

 fruit abundantly in the stoves at Walton on 

 Thames, at the roj'al gardens at Windsor, and 

 other places. Such is the rapid growth of this 

 species, that a single plant will, in one season, 

 extend in a line over upwards of forty feet of 

 glass, in which space it wiU produce from 400 to 

 600 fruit. 



The flesh-coloured grcnadilla (p. incarnata) 

 has a perennial root, sending up annually a num- 

 ber of herbaceous shoots, with three-lobed leaves, 

 and sweet scented flowers, variegated with 

 purple, and appears from July to September. 

 The fruit, when ripe, is about the size of an 

 apple, orange coloured, with a Swedish yellow 

 pulp. It is a native of Virginia, was cultivated 

 in the open air, by Parkinson, in 1629, and af- 

 terwards by Miller, in the stove, with whom it 

 bore fruit. 



The passiflora quadrangularis is the most 

 valuable for cultivation here ; and it has borne 

 fruit in the gardens of the Horticultural Society. 

 The water lemon is a larger and more woody 

 plant ; the flowers are handsome and very fra- 

 grant ; and the fruit something in the shape and 

 of the size of a lemon, full of a watery but very 

 agreeable tasted juice, whence the name. The 

 plant grows wild in the woods, but is often cul- 

 tivated for the sake of its fruit. It was intro- 

 duced into England about the same time with 

 the pine apple ; but it has not met with equal 

 attention. 



On the American ccntinent, and especially in 

 Brazil, where the productions of the vegetable 

 kingdom are very numerous and luxuriant, there 

 are many varieties of grenadilla, if not distinct 

 species, with which botanists do not appear to 

 be very well acquainted ; indeed, the forests and 

 savannahs of Brazil appear to offer the richest 

 harvest for botanical research of any places now 

 un the surface of the globe. Piso, in his natural 



history of Brazil, enumerates and gives figures 

 of several sorts of grenadilla, under the name of 

 Murucuja. One, he says, has five-lobed leaves 

 and purple flowers, with oblong fruit, larger 

 than any European pear, filled with a mucila- 

 ginous pulp, of a scent and flavour that nothing 

 can exceed. Another has the same leaf and fla- 

 vour, but fruit in the form and size of an apple, 

 the pulp of which has a vinous flavour. There 

 are many other sorts, but these are described as 

 the best. The grenadillas generally, which are 

 called parchas by the Spaniai'ds, have a pleasant 

 sweetish acid, with a fi'agrance something be- 

 tween that of a melon and a strawbeiTy. 



CHAP. XXXVIII. 



THE MELON, CUCUMBER, GOURDS, LOVE ArPI.K, 

 EGO PLANT, &C. 



The natural family czicurbitacecB consists of 

 large herbaceous plants, frequently with twining, 

 climbing stems, and covered with short, very 

 stiff hairs. The leaves are alternate, petiolate, 

 and more or less lobed. The tendrils, which are 

 simple or branched, arise beside the petioles. 

 The flowers are generally unisexual, and monoe- 

 cious, very rarely hermaphrodite. The fruit is 

 fleshy, mostly sweet, watery, cooling, and pleasant 

 to the taste; or bitter, drastic, and purgative in 

 its qualities. The seeds, when the fruit is ripe, 

 seem scattered in the midst of a filamentous or 

 fleshy cellular tissue. 



The principal genera of this family are : The 

 cucumis, cucurbita, pepo, ccballium, memordica, 

 bryonia, gronovia. Thus including several es- 

 teemed and cooling fruits, as the melon, gourds, 

 cucumber; as also the colocynth and bryons, both 

 drastic purgatives. The papaw tree, classed 

 among this family, is a remarkable deviation from 

 the ordinary herbaceous and climbing chaiiicter 

 which distinguishes the others. 



The Melon, (citcumis melo.J Moncecia man- 

 andria of Linn. 



The melon is the richest and most highly fla- 

 voured of all the fleshy fruits. It is often said 

 to be a native of the central parts of Asia, and 

 to have been first brought into Europe from 

 Persia; but the date of its first culture is so re- 

 mote, that there is no certain knowledge on the 

 subject. Pliny and Columella describe the fond- 

 ness of the Emperor Tiberius for melons, and 

 detail the contrivances by which they were pro- 

 cured for him at all seasons. Stoves appear to 

 have been used in this process; so that forcing- 

 houses were not unknown to the Romans. The 

 melon has certainly been generally cultivated in 

 England since about the middle of the sixteenth 

 century; how much earlier is not known. It is 



