SQUASH. 211 



with succulent but not fleshy herbage, watery juice, alternate 

 palmately ribbed and mostly angled or lobed leaves, pistillate 

 and staminate flowers separate and both kinds generally on the 

 same plant. Calyx grown to ovary, petals commonly united, 

 stamens usually three, of which one has a one-celled and the 

 others two-celled anthers, but commonly the anthers are much 

 twisted and often all combined into a head and the filaments are 

 sometimes grown into a column. The fruit is unusually fleshy 

 and the seed is flat and made up entirely of embryo. It is 

 commonly believed that some of the species in this group readily 

 cross, but if it occurs at all it is but rarely, and squash and 

 pumpkins have never been successfully crossed with melons. 

 Besides the squash, pumpkin, muskmelon, watermelon and 

 cucumbers, whose cultural directions are here given, there occurs 

 here the gourds and wild cucumbers of the gardens. 



SQUASH. (Cucurbita.) 



The term squash does not signify any botanical division, 

 but is an American name that is applied to a large number of 

 varieties of gourds which in common parlance have come to 

 be classifled separately. The term often includes what are 

 sometimes called pumpkins. 



The term gourd is applied to all the members of Cucurbita 

 pepo and includes the Scallop and Crookneck Squashes, fleld 

 pumpkins and the small, very hard-shelled fruits of many 

 shapes and colors borne on slender vines that are grown chiefly 

 as curiosities under the name of gourds. The latter are what are 

 commonly known as gourds. 



Pollenizing the Flowers. — The flowers resemble those of the 

 cucumber and melon, being separate on the same vine. The 

 pistillate flower is produced at the end of the miniature squash; 

 the staminate flower is often called the "false blossom," and its 

 oflBlce is to produce pollen only. They are naturally pollenized by 

 insects. 



The crop is made more certain by having bees near by to 

 pollenize the flowers. In some places, the absence of manj- in- 

 sects is the reason why cucumbers, melons and squashes, which 

 are similar in the construction of their flowers, fail to produce 

 much fruit, though the vines may grow freely. This is a 



