330 



Lagenaria, Seringe. 



Lagenaria vulgaris, Seringe ; Fl. Trop. Afr. II. p. 529. 



III.— Rheede, Hort. Mai, viii. tt. 1, 1, 5 ; Rumpf, Amb. v. t. 144 

 (Cucurbita lagenaria) ; Desc. Ant. v. t. 325 (Cucurbita) ; Wight, 

 Illust. t. 105 bis ; Rev. Hort. 1855, p. 61 (L. microcarpa fruit) ; 

 Duthie, Field Crops, t. 18 ; Bull. Econ. Indo-Chine. 1905, p. 1213 ; 

 L'Agric. prac. pays chauds, vii. i, 1907, p. 325 ; Queensland Agric. 

 Journ. xxi. 1908, t. 33 (fruit) ; Fairchild & Collins, U.S. Dept. Agric. 

 Bureau of PI. Industry, Circ. No. 11, 1909, t. 1, f. 1 (Calabash pipe- 

 gourds), f. 2 (young pipe gourds at the stage to begin the shaping 

 process), t. 2 (materials & various forms of pipes). 



Vernac. names. — Kabewa, Kworia, Butah, Gora, or Luddei 

 (Katagum, Dalziel) ; M'booyoo (Unyoro, Grant) ; Bau-sau (Annam, 

 Lan) ; Calebasse-terre (French Guiana, Heckel) ; Courge Calebasse 

 Etranglee (Antilles, Descourtilez), Binda, Dinhungo (Golungo Alto, 

 Welwiisch) ; Kan pio (Japan, Ngai) ; Yugao (Japan, Hayashi) ; 

 Hiotan (Japan, Matsumura) ; Charrah (Arabia, Loudon). — Calabash, 

 Pipe Calabash, Calabash Gourd, Siphon Gourd, Bottle Gourd, Club 

 Gourd, White Pumpkin. 



Katagum (Dalziel, No. 119, Herb. Kew). Cosmopolitan in the 

 tropics and sub-tropics of both hemispheres. Cultivated. 



The dried gourds are used for floats, bowls, water bottles and 

 spoons, Katagum (Dalziel, Herb. Kew) ; Lagos (Mill en, Rep. Bot. St. 

 30th Sept. 1895), and for every conceivable domestic purpose in the 

 various parts of the world where it is grown, the remarkable variety 

 in shape and size contributing largely to this general utility. 

 Charcoal made from the shell is used in the preparation of lamp- 

 black, for lac-turnery in India (Watt, Agric. Ledger, 1901, p. 338). 



The prepared pulp of the fruit is edible in some of the varieties. 



Loudon (Encycl. PI. p. 808) states that the Arabians eat the fruit 

 boiled, with vinegar, or fill the shell with rice and meat and thus 

 make a kind of pudding of it, and that the pulp of the fruit is bitter 

 and purgative, and may be used instead of " Coloquintida " (Citrullus 

 Colocynthis). According to Balfour (Treas. Bot. ii. p. 656), the 

 fruits are poisonous or at best of doubtful quality, although some of 

 the numerous varieties have been eaten with impunity, and Heckel 

 also states that the pulp surrounding the seeds is poisonous, and the 

 juice violently purgative (Ann. Inst. Col. Marseille, iv. 1897, p. 100). 



In Japan the gourd is used as food after being thoroughly dried — 

 the ends of the fruit are cut off, the seeds and pulp taken out, the 

 outer or fleshy part cut into very thin slices and dried by hanging on 

 sticks. It will keep when dried for a considerable time in proper 

 vessels, closed tightly (Nagai, Cat. Japan Inter. Health Exhib. London, 

 1881, p. 11, q.v. for analysis, Hayashi Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. xxx. 

 1906, p. 21). 



A variety " Dinhungo," with oblong fruit is eaten in Golungo Alto 

 (Hiern. Cat. Welw. Afr. PI. ii. p. 392). 



The seeds have been used in French Guiana as a taenicide (Heckel, 

 I.e.), and a decoction of the leaves in purging clysters (Loudon, I.e.). 



Recently an important though perhaps limited trade in these 

 gourds has arisen in S. Africa for the manufacture of pipes, for 

 which purpose the plants are specially cultivated. The desired curve 

 in the stalk usually develops naturally when the plants are grown on 

 the ground, but artificial methods are occasionally resorted to. The 



