IX 
WATERMELONS ARE GOURDS 
I SN’T IT ODD that the watermelon, as you will see if 
you study its family, is a gourd! 
It may be even harder at first to think of the cucumber 
as a gourd. It is not so difficult in the case of the canta¬ 
loupe, for this is hollow on the inside and has its seeds 
clustered there, just as the ordinary gourd has. The 
pumpkin and the squash, come to think of it, are built 
very much on the gourd plan. 
As a matter of fact, all these are cousins in the gourd 
family. Even the cucumber and the watermelon, which 
are not hollow inside, have outside shells and seeds hid¬ 
den away inside. These two fruits, in fact, are built on 
patterns that are alike. 
If one happened to think that these plants might be 
kin to each other and began to study them, he would soon 
find plenty of proof that they are. He would find, for 
example, that all grow on trailing vines that spread out 
upon the ground. All those vines are much alike. All 
have broad leaves that spread their faces to the sun for 
purposes of sugar-making. These leaves are likely to be 
hairy and unpleasant to the touch. 
The gourd itself is less like many of its cousins than 
they are like each other. Some gourd vines run along the 
ground, but others climb trees. Most of the gourds are 
children of the tropics, but many of them have been 
brought to northern gardens and grown there. 
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