NOTES OF GOURDS. 



547 



that to place in the soil a surplus of phosphoric 

 acid and potash is quite right, while nitrogen should 

 be measured out as accurately as possible. 



How much phosphoric acid is needed in a par- 

 ticular case, i. e., for a particular plant on a par- 

 ticular soil, in order to produce the greatest pos- 

 sible yield, cannot be closely calculated. The one 

 soil is rich in potash, the other poor ; the one rich 

 in phosphoric acid, the other poor. The one crop 

 needs much easily soluble potash or phosphoric 

 acid, the other little. The one soil yields the phos- 

 phoric acid, applied in easily soluble form, directly ; 

 the other renders it less soluble, and demands a 

 relatively heavier manuring to produce an equal 

 result. The one soil has never, or very rarely, 

 received phosphates, the other large quantities 



almost yearly ; and it is possible that the latter 

 possesses a store equal to the demand for several 

 years. How can the farmer find his way through 

 all these difficulties ? He cannot. Nothing remains 

 but to apply an excess of both food constituents ; 

 and in this there is indeed no danger, for potash 

 and phosphoric acids are substances which the soil 

 binds up and preserves for later crops, in case the 

 one immediately following demands them only par- 

 tially or not at all. With nitrogen it is quite differ- 

 ent. Nitrogen is not bound up by the soil : it re- 

 mains freely movable. The residue from a crop 

 would be in danger, during the winter months, of 

 being washed into the subsoil and lost. 



E. S. Carman. 



NOTES OF GOURDS. 



GOURD, or a melon, botanically 

 speaking, is not always some- 

 thing good to eat, or in some 

 other way useful. The Latin 

 word ciiaa-bita, or gourd, gives 

 the name to an extensive 



I family of vine -like plants, 



some of which climb and others do not, all of 

 which bear fruits, or what are botanically regarded 

 as such, some of which are among the most in- 

 viting that come upon the table. Others are 

 bitter and medicinal, as the colocynth of Palestine, 

 and others again are rank and nauseous. What is 

 usually regarded as a gourd* is a hanging fruit, 

 which at maturity has a hard wood-like rind and 

 contains a pulp, very bitter, that dries almost en- 

 tirely away, leaving little but what holds the abun- 

 dant seeds of the fruit. One peculiarity of the 

 plants producing what we call dipper gourds or cala- 

 bashes is the musk-like odor that most of them give 

 out when their leaves are pinched. 



We generally look upon a gourd as something 

 unsuitable for the table ; but this is an error, as 

 \«hen cooked, several of the species of Syria, Ja- 

 pan and Brazil are palatable when prepared 

 young, especially those which grow long, thin and 

 green, like the Hercules' Club. 



One sort furnishes the reticulated skeleton used as a 

 bathing-scrubber and in making beautiful bonnets. It 

 is sometimes called a ' ' dish-cloth gourd, " from one of its 



(*) In England the term " gourd " is generic for all kinds of 

 pumpkins and squashes.— Ed. Am. G. 



uses in our gulf states. In India the natives eat one of 

 the varieties when quite young ; but we never discovered 

 anything to tempt one to test any of a dozen varieties 

 we have grown in this city. The Sponge-bearing cu- 

 cumber {Liiffa uiacroiarpa) of Egypt and Japan will 

 reach perfection in Philadelphia in five months, and will 

 stand the climate from June ist to November 15th ; but 

 the plants should be started in the house, to make sure 

 of a crop, as the fruits sometimes set very late. The 

 Egyptian luffa, described by Prosper Alpinus in 1645 

 among the plants and fruits of Egypt, is the one best 

 suited to this country, and should be grown as a climber, 

 although near Cairo, where there is no rain, it is raised 

 over large tracts of land, as a cucumber is grown. Still, 

 even' in Egypt, the skeletons are often rendered dark 

 and inferior by their manner of growth and preparation, 

 as compared with some of silvery whiteness produced 

 in this city on the south side of a wooden building where 

 the sun reached them all day. Here, seeds planted in 

 June, bore perfected fruits with jet-black seeds by No- 

 vember 1st, and I have not seen more silvery skeletons. 

 We have tested seeds from Cuba, Egypt, India, China 

 and Japan, and have found fruits that produced no net- 

 work north of southern Florida, as they required that 

 the plants should have a growth of eight months. A 

 bower of these plants is a pretty sight, and the leaves 

 of some of the varieties are beautifully marked. The 

 most curious of all of the varieties, is the Luffa iiocti- 

 Jlora odorata, which as its name indicates, blooms at 

 night and has a perfume. It has a small drupe-shaped, 

 ridged fruit, a thin network, smaller flowers than the 

 other varieties, and seeds like a watermelon. As the 

 flowers open at night and droop in the morning, I have 

 secured seeds by doing the work of the bee with a soft 

 camel's hair brush. 



PhiladL-lphia. Robert P. Harris, M. D. 



