284 
33. CUCrKBITACEJE. 
fr. most resembles that of the best carrots. But boiled when 
young i. e. from 2-4 in. in diam., and served up like Vegetable 
Marrows or Asparagus, they form perhaps one of the most 
delicate of vegetable esculents. Candied slices of the ripe fr. 
are also a favourite though insipid confect. 
The importance of this esculent and its congeners in these 
and the Canaiy Islands can be scarcely overrated. "What the 
Potato ever was in Ireland are Aboboras in these latitudes to 
all classes. For at least six months in the year (Aug.-Jan.) 
they constitute almost one-third of their daily nourishment: and 
from their facility of combination by boiling with fatty sub- 
stances, together with their large supply of saccharine beside 
their farinaceous material, afford a most nutritious food, evinced 
by the surprising muscular powers of the Mad. peasantry. 
The yoimg 1. and shoots when bruised or handled exhale a 
strong odour of musk : but the fr. has only occasionally any such 
scent or flavour. 
There are two distinct forms or subvarr. in foliage of this sp. : 
one with the 1. broadly angular-lobate, lobes simple short tri- 
angular, wider downwards, with acute shallow sinuses ; the 
other with the 1. deeply palmate-lobate, the lobes distinct, con- 
tracted downwards, with wide open sinuses, and compound or 
again themselves lobed. 
Abobora da Roclia or La Courge berberc Naud. is a var., said 
to be constant from seed, with lageniform, pearshaped, or long 
clavate fr., of which the thinner stalk-like part or base is solid 
and barren, the head or club only hollow and fertile. Seeds 
rather larger and paler drab, viz. 10 lines long and 5 broad. 
ttt2. C. Pepo Ser. in I)C. Abobora (or Roganga) dc Machado 
or dc Caloa. 
PricJdg-strigosc or setose ; 1. ample very large rather deep full 
gr. immaculate stiff very harsh and prickly 5-lobed cordate, lobes 
broad acute sharply toothed with acute shallow sinuses ; ovary 
subglabrous ribbed eubangulnr; fr.-stalk strongly 5-angular 
ribbed and side ate, irregularly many-lobed at its insertion ; fr. large 
oblong or oval subangular strongly and abruptly ribbed shining 
without bloom, flesh pale fibrous, seeds w. elliptic-oblong narrow. 
— I)C. iii. 317 (not Linn.); Naud. in Ann. Sci. Nat. (s«5r. 4) 
vi. 29. C. Pepo B. polymorpha 8. oblonga (Lcs Giraumons et 
