Hybridiza tion 139 



with squashes, gourds, and pumpkins. The common 

 little pear-shaped gourd will impress itself more strongly 

 upon crosses than any of the edible squashes and pumpkins 

 with which it will effect a cross, whether it is used as male 

 or female parent. It contains many dominant unit- 

 characters. Even the imposing and ubiquitous great 

 field pumpkin which every New Englander associates 

 with pies, is overpowered by the little gourd. Seeds from 

 a large and sleek pumpkin which had been fertilized by 

 gourd pollen produced gourds and small hard-shelled 

 globular fruits which were entirely inedible. A more inter- 

 esting experiment was made between the handsome 

 green-striped Bergen fall squash and the little pear gourd. 

 Several flowers of the gourd were pollinated by the Ber- 

 gen in 1889. The fruits raised from these seeds in 1890 

 were remarkably gourd-like. Some of these crosses were 

 pollinated again in 1890 by the Bergen, and the seeds were 

 grown in 1891. Here, then, were crosses into which the 

 gourd had gone once and the Bergen twice, and both 

 parents are to all appearances equally fixed, the difference 

 in strength, if any, attaching rather to the Bergen. Now, 

 the crop of 1891 still carried pronounced characters of the 

 gourd. Even in the fruits that most resembled the Ber- 

 gen, the shells were almost flinty hard, and the flesh, even 

 when thick and tender, was bitter. Some of the fruits 

 looked so much like the Bergen that I was led to think 

 that the gourd had largely disappeared. The very hard 

 but thin paper-like shell which the gourd had laid over 

 the thick yellow flesh of the Bergen, I thought might 

 serve a useful purpose, and make the squash a better 

 keeper. And I found that it was a great protection, for 



