142 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



5. CUCUR'BITA, L. Squash and Pl^ipkix. 



[The Latinized Celtic name foi- a Goui-d or hollow vessel.] 



Calyx-tube ovoid club-shaped ; limb circumcissed and deciduous. Corolla 

 bell-shaped. Fruit fleshy or finally hard and somewhat woody. Seeds 

 white, obovate, convexly compressed, the margin scarcely tumid. Trail- 

 ing annuals with subcordate leaves, branching tendrils and yellow axillary 

 subsolitary flowers. 



* Fruit always fleshy. 



1. C. Pe'po, L. Leaves obtusely cordate, somewhat 5-lobed ; fruit 

 subglobose oblong or clavate, smooth, always fleshy. 



Pumpkin. 



Ft. La grosse Citrouille. Potiron. 



Rough and hispid. Soot annual. Stem 10-20 or SO feet long, sparingly branched; 

 branched. Leaves 9-15 or 18 inches in length ; petioles 3-6 or 8 inches long. 

 Floicers yellow, large, axillary, — the staminate ones often sohtarj' on a long peduncle. 

 ty-uit of various forms, sizes and colors, — the flesh of the rind usually yellow, the cavity 

 loosely filled with a yellow stringy pulp. 



Fields and lots : cultivated (usually with Indian Corn, in Pennsvlvania). Native df 

 tho East. Fl. July. Fr. October. 



Obs. Extensively cultivated for its fruit, — of which there are many 

 varieties ; some of them attaining to an enormous size (2 feet or more 

 in diameter), — but these are not so valuable. The better sorts are 

 often used at table, — aflbrding the celebrated Pumpkin Pie of Ivew 

 England ; and the coarser varieties are esteemed for feeding stock. 

 "When growing in the immediate vicinity of Squashes, the fruit of this 

 species is liable to be converted into a Hybrid, of little or no value. I 

 have had a crop of Pampkms totally spoiled, by inadvertently planting 

 Squashes among them, — the fruit becoming very hard and warty — unfit 

 for the table, and unsafe to give to cattle. 



■^"^ Fruit finally becoming sublignecus. 



2. 0. Me'lopepo, L. Leaves subcordate, somewhat 5-angied ; fruit 

 mostly orbicular and much depressed, with the margin often tumid and 

 torulose, at first fleshy, finally subligneous. 



Round Squash. Cymling. 



Fr. Bonnet de Pretre. Pastissou. 



Hirsute. Boot annual. Stem 8-12 or 15 feet long, somewhat branching; tendrils 

 branched, — sometimes transformed or developed into imperfect leaves. Leaves 6-8 

 inches long ; petioles as long as the leaves. Flowers yellow, rather large, pedunculate. - 

 Fruit of various colors (mostlj^ yellow, pale green, or mottled) , smooth or sometimes 

 warty, — the ]-ind finally hard and woody, containing a loose stringy pulp. 



Fields and gardens : cultivated. Native country uncertain. Fl. July. Fi: October. 



Obs. Cultivated for the young fruit, — which is generally esteemed, as 

 a vegetable sauce. There are numerous varieties of the fruit— aod of 

 various qualities. There is also a kind of stunted variety of the plant,, 

 with a short bushy stem, which is often a prolific bearer. 



