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THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



or creep, and was introduced from South America, twenty years 

 ago, under the name of Zapallito de Tronco. It is not a productive 

 kind, and seems to have gone out of cultivation. In North 

 America, under the name of Essex Hybrid Squash, or American 

 Turban, a variety is grown which has thick, almost cylindrical 

 fruit, with the crown hardly defined, and of a uniform salmon-pink 

 colour, almost exactly resembling the tint of the Ohio Squash. 



II. Cucurbita moschata, Duch., and Varieties 



The varieties which have sprung from this species have all long 

 running stems, which readily take root, and are covered (as are also 

 the leaves and leaf-stalks) with numerous hairs, which never become 

 spiny. They are also distinguished by having the fruit-stalk 

 (which is pentangular or sexangular, like that of Cuburbita Pepo) 

 swollen where it joins the fruit. The leaves are not cut, but exhibit 

 well-marked angles, and are dark green relieved by blotches of 

 silvery white produced by a thin layer of air under the skin, which 

 rises here and there between the principal veins or nerves. T*he 

 calyx has the segments divided almost as far as the stalk, and often 

 broader at the extremity than at the base ; they sometimes become 

 leafy. The seeds are variable in size, but always a dirty white, and 

 margined and covered by a loosely adhering membrane or skin, 

 ' which often becomes detached here and 

 there, giving the seeds a shaggy appearance. 

 Their germinating power lasts for six years. 

 This species derives its name from the musky 

 flavour which all the varieties of it possess, 

 to a greater or less extent, in the flesh of 

 the fruit. 



Carpet-bag Gourd, or Naples Squash. — 



Stem trailing, lo to 13 ft. long ; leaves 

 medium-sized, entire, rounded or five-angled, 

 of a deep and rather dull green, with veins 

 and spots of whitish gray, clearly relieved 

 on the green ground : fruit large, 20 in. to 

 2 ft. long, and 6 to 8 in. broad in its widest 

 part. The part next the stalk is nearly 

 cylindrical, but the lower part is more or 

 less swollen, and it is only in this part that 

 ^^""^Na" ks^ Squash ^^^^^ found, the upper part being solidly 

 natural size). ^ filled with flesh without any central cavity. 



Skin smooth, dark green, becoming yellow 

 when the fruit is quite ripe ; flesh orange coloured, very abundant, 

 sweet, perfumed, and keeping well. This variety is very productive, 

 and the fruit is of excellent quality. It has no fault except that 



