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LXVII. A Description and Account of the Cultivation of a 

 Variety of Gourd called Vegetable Marrow. By Joseph 

 Sabine, Esq. F.R.S. fyc. Secretary. 



Read December 3, 1816. 



o NE of the subjects on which the Society had called for 

 information in the printed account of Desiderata, distributed 

 at the last Anniversary, was a description of the different va- 

 rieties of Gourds best adapted to culinary purposes. 



To enable me to satisfy this enquiry, I collected the seeds 

 of every sort of Gourd or Pumpkin which I considered likely 

 to answer my purpose, and put out the plants I raised from 

 them separately in a large quarter of my garden. The 

 season was not propitious to my wishes, and the large sorts 

 did not attain that maturity which was necessary to enable 

 me to ascertain their value. I was not however altogether 

 unsuccessful, for from two packets of seeds received from 

 different quarters, I raised plants whose produce I have 

 proved to be of a superior quality, and consequently to be 

 deserving of notice. These are called Vegetable Marrow ; 

 the plants did not differ from other Gourds in any points, 

 except in their yielding a large produce. The fruit is of 

 an uniform pale yellow, or light sulphur colour ; when full 

 grown it is about nine inches in length, four inches in 

 diameter, of an elliptic shape, the surface being rendered 

 slightly uneven by irregular longitudinal ribs, the terminations 



vol. ii. M m 



