336 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



of smaller size than those of any of the kinds hitherto described in 

 this volume, but the characteristics of all those parts, and also of 

 the calyx and flower-stalk, indicate the origin of the varieties 

 clearly enough ; and yet the Custard Marrows, which all are 

 agreed to consider the undoubted offspring of Cucurbiia Pepo, 

 may be said to form, by their small hard-skinned fruit, a true 

 connecting link between the Fancy Gourds and the edible kinds 

 described in the Vegetable Marrow section. The Fancy Gourds 

 have generally, if not always, long climbing or creeping stems, 

 and, on this account, are very often grown as ornamental plants on 

 trellises, arbours, etc. As they grow very rapidly, they are very 

 useful for quickly covering bare surfaces with verdure, and their 

 numerous and usually prettily variegated fruit are highly orna- 

 mental late in autumn and up to the first appearance of frosty 

 weather. The number of varieties is almost unlimited, and new- 

 kinds are constantly being raised from seed. As it would be 

 impossible to enumerate them all here, w^e shall confine ourselves 

 to the description of the best established and most generally 

 cultivated kinds. 



Pear Gourd. — One of the most common forms of Fancy 

 Gourds is the elongated shape, with a spherical or ovoid swelling 



at the end farthest from the stalk. The varieties which have fruit 

 of this shape are known by the general name of Pear Gourds, and 

 differ more or less from one another in colour, as the White Pear 

 Gourd, the skin of which is smooth and entirely milk-white ; the 

 Striped Pear Gourd, which is dark green in colour, marked with 

 irregular longitudinal bands, or rows of spots, which are either 

 white or of a much paler green than the rest of the fruit ; the 

 Two-coloured Pear Gourd, one half of which is yellow, and the 

 other a uniform green ; the Ringed Pear Gourd, in which the green 



Pear Gourd. 



Ringed Pear Gourd. 



