The plant is a vigorous grower, and the yield abundant; but its quality is inferior, and the variety can hardly be considered worthy of cultivation for table use. It may, however, prove a profitable sort for growing for agricultural purposes.
Puritan.
Puritan Squash.
Plant running, ten feet and upwards in length; leaves clear green, of medium size; fruit bottle-formed, fourteen or fifteen inches long, and about ten inches in diameter at the broadest part; neck solid, four or five inches in diameter; average weight eight to ten pounds; skin thin, usually white or cream-white, striped and marked with green, though specimens sometimes occur, from unmixed seed, uniformly green; flesh pale yellow, dry, sweet, mild, and well flavored; seeds of medium size, white. Season from August to January.
This variety, long common to gardens in the vicinity of the Old Colony, retains its distinctive character to a very remarkable degree, even when grown under the most unfavorable circumstances. Seeds, obtained from a gardener who had cultivated the variety indiscriminately among numerous summer and winter kinds for upwards of twenty years, produced specimens uniformly true to the normal form color, and quality. It is hardy and productive, good for table use, excellent for pies, and well deserving of cultivation.
Sweet-Potato Squash.
Plant very similar in character to that of the Hubbard or Autumnal Marrow; fruit twelve or fourteen inches long, seven or eight inches thick, sometimes ribbed, but usually without rib-markings; oblong, tapering to the ends, which are often bent or curved in the manner of some of the types of the Hubbard; stem of medium size, striated; skin ash-green, with a smooth, polished surface; flesh salmon-yellow, thick, fine-grained, dry, and sweet,—if the variety is pure, and the fruit well matured, its quality approaches that of the Hubbard and Autumnal Marrow; seeds white.
The variety is hardy and productive, keeps well, and is deserving of cultivation. When grown in the vicinity of the last-named sorts, it often becomes mixed, and rapidly degenerates. In its purity, it is uniformly of one color; with perhaps the exception of the under surface, which is sometimes paler or yellowish. It has been suggested that this variety and the Hubbard may have originated under similar circumstances.
Turban.