HUBBARD SQUASH 



While the bumblebee has the advantage in the staminate 

 flower, because its tongue is long enough to reach the nectar easily, 

 the honey-bees have their chance in the open chalice of the pis- 

 tillate flower. Seven bees are often found at one time in a single 

 cup. At the base of the pistillate flower is the tiny green ball that 

 will in time, if all goes well, become a Squash. If cut crosswise 

 its three-celled structxire becomes at once apparent. There are 

 more staminate than pistillate blooms, all are solitary, and each 

 appears in the axil of a leaf. One looks at a Squash or a Pumpkin 

 vine with little if any idea of its beauty, yet "with its broad leaves 

 all greenness and its blossoms all gold," the plant may well chal- 

 lenge admiration. 



The home of the Pumpkin, Cucurhita pepo, is believed to be 

 America. It has been found growing wild in Mexico, and was 

 under cultivation by the aborigines in Florida, Mexico, and the 

 West Indies when those regions were first visited by Europeans. 

 Dr. Gray believed aU except var. maxima, the Hubbard Squash, 

 to be of American origin, but the species and varieties of this genus 

 are hopelessly confused. 



The gourd, Cuciirbita pepo var. ovifera is a smaller plant than 

 the type, and produces small, hard, inedible fruit; in shape oval, 

 globular, or oblate, in great variety; and in color simple or 

 blotched or striped. The species is sold in many varieties and 

 under many names. 



The Bottle Gourd, Lagenaria vulgaris, originally from tropical 

 Africa and Asia, is now generally cultivated because of the varied 

 forms of its fruits, whose smooth, hard shells are often used as 

 drinking cups. The species has varied into many garden forms. 



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