NOTES ON THE DASHEEN AND CHAYOTE 
According to a circular issued by the United States Department of 
Agriculture, the chayote may be grown successfully on any well drained, 
cultivated lands in those sections of the southern states where the ground 
does not freeze — anywhere south of a line drawn from Charleston, South 
Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and along the Gulf coast of Texas. 
It has fruited at some points north of this.^ It is reported to have been 
grown in California. 
Fig. 5. Fruits of the chayote, one-third natural size. Note, from left to right: 
distal, lateral, and proximal aspects. The embryo is seen protruding from the distal ends 
of two of the fruits. ' 
Histology of the Fruit 
Alike with other cucurbitaceous fruits, that of the chayote agrees in the 
fusion of the receptacle with the carpellary portions during the develop- 
mental process. 
The receptacle constitutes by far the greater portion of the fruit area. 
In surface section, the outer epidermal cells are polygonal in outline and 
richly protoplasmic. Many contain small prisms of calcium oxalate. 
Scattered all over this region and interspersed among the regular epidermal 
cells may be noted small groups of cells, not unlike the other cells in shape, 
but having thicker walls and yellowish to light brown fixed oil contents. 
Stomata may also be found in moderate numbers in this region. These 
with their guard cells are broadly elliptical in outline. Each is surrounded 
by five neighboring cells. In cross section the outer walls of the epidermal 
cells are slightly convex and cutinized. Beneath the outer epidermis is a 
zone of several layers of parenchymatous cells, many of which have lignified 
walls. In some instances, lignification occurs in the walls of the cells 
directly underneath the epidermis; in others the lignified elements are 
separated from the epidermis by one to several layers of cells with non- 
lignified walls. 
The next broadest zone of the receptacle is composed of more or less 
radially elongated, thin-walled parenchyma cells, comparatively small in 
the outer region but gradually becoming larger toward the center. Numer- 
ous branched latex tubes with yellowish contents course irregularly through 
2 Circular on chayote. U. S. Dept. of Agric. 
