116 CUCURBITACEOUS PLANTS. 



cultivation in humid climates or cold latitudes, as the fruit 

 forms early in the season, and is soon ripened. 



Canada The plants of this variety are similar in 



habit to those of the Common Winter Crook- 

 neck ; but the foliage is smaller, and the growth less luxu- 

 riant. In point of size, the Canada Crookneck is the small- 

 est of its class. When the variety is unmixed, the weight 

 seldom exceeds five or six pounds. It is sometimes bottle- 

 formed ; but the neck is generally small, solid, and curved 

 in the form of the Large Winter Crooknecks. The seeds 

 are contained at the blossom-end, which expands somewhat 

 abruptly, and is often slightly ribbed. Skin of moderate 

 thickness, and easily pierced by the nail ; color, when fully 

 ripened, cream-yellow, but, if long kept, becoming duller 

 and darker ; flesh salmon-red, very close-grained, dry, sweet, 

 and fine-flavored ; seeds small, of a grayish or dull white 

 color ; three hundred are contained in an ounce. 



The Canada is unquestionably the best of the Crook- 

 necked sorts. The vines are remarkably hardy and prolific, 

 yielding almost a certain crop both North and South. The 

 variety ripens early ; the plants suffer but little from the 

 depredations of bugs or worms ; and the fruit, with trifling 

 care, may be preserved throughout the year. It is also 

 quite uniform in quality ; being seldom of the coarse and 

 stringy character so common to other varieties of this class. 



Cashaw. Somewhat of the form and color of the 



CUSH K^ PUMP " Common Winter Crookneck. Two prominent 

 varieties, however, occur. The first is "nearly 

 round ; the other curved, or of the shape of a hunter s horn. 

 The latter is the most desirable. It is not cultivated or gener- 

 ally known in New England, or in the northern portions of 

 the United States ; for though well suited to Louisiana and 

 other portions of the South, where it is much esteemed, it 

 is evidently too tender for cultivation where the seasons are 

 short and cool. 



