INTENSIVE CULTIVATION IN MADEIRA. 



65 



GouBDS : "Abobora." 



Gourds are grown everywhere; they form a staple food of the 

 peasantry, bemg the foundation, with sweet potatos and colocasia, of 

 their vegetable soups or sopas. Every workman, be he roadman, wood- 

 man, or gardener, goes out to his work provided with a neat covered 

 basket containing his dinner; out of the basket proceeds a bowl filled 

 with a thick, wholesome mixture of vegetables, all boiled down 

 together; some bread; fish, fresh or salt; and he is generally able to 

 add to his menu oranges and bananas for dessert, and, during the cane 

 season, a stick of sugar cane to chew. The gourds are chiefly of three 

 sorts, Abohora preta {Cucurhita moschata), large globose dark green 

 ribbed fruits with red flesh; Abohora de machado, enormously heavy, 

 oblong, greyish-green fruits, mellowing to yellow, 12 to 18 inches long, 

 with pale flesh; -and Boganga branca {Cucurhita melanosperma), 

 smooth and oval, with greenish-white speckled rind and white flesh. A 

 large vintage-basket full of these is a tremendous weight, yet a man 

 will carry it on his head for several miles down the mountains. The 

 green wrinkled Pepinella {Sechiuin edule) is a small kind of gourd of 

 delicate flavour. These gourds are grown on the ground on terraces, 

 often in large patches, trailing into one another, the weeds coming up 

 through them. As the fruits ripen they are cut and eaten; some are 

 put on each cottage roof to mature for seed and for keeping. Gourds 

 are also planted singly here and there on any spare ground with a 

 few rods stuck in for them to climb up, or among the bare vine stems 

 up which they are trained and run along the latadas, the fruits hanging 

 down along the branches, as they trail to a considerable length. "When 

 the plants are exhausted they are all pulled up and the ground cleaned 

 and made ready for some other crop. Cucumbers, " Pepina," and the 

 melon, ** Melad," are grown later in the year. 



Colocasia : ' ' Inhame. ' ' 



A large edible rhizome, slimy and succulent, of a greyish colour, is 

 produced by Colocasia antiquorum, the Inhame." It is a handsome 

 crop when growing; tiers of terraces are covered with closely planted 

 rows of it; the stout leafstalk is over two feet in length, 

 and bears a great heart-shaped leaf balanced on the top so that the 

 leaves all face towards the prevailing sunshine, rather east of south on 

 an easterly-facing terrace ; they form a complete leaf-mosaic, dove- 

 tailing one into another in the neatest manner, presenting an almost 

 unbroken leaf expanse to the sun and air. The work of this large 

 assimilating surface results in the building up of the tuberous root- 

 stock. When these are full grown they are taken up, the yellowing 

 leaves cut off, the ground ' deeply worked* with the " en'xada " (fig. 46) 

 and manured, and pieces of the growing head of the tuber with the old 

 leaf -stalk attached are planted again in rows, filling up the terraces 

 at once. 



VOL. xxxvi. F 



