[976] The young shoots of the gourd, Fée says, would afford an insipid food, with but little nutriment.
[977] The varieties thus employed, Fée says, must have been the Cucurbita lagenaria of Linnæus, and the Cucurbita latior of Dodonæus.
[978] This is not the fact. The seed produces fruit similar to that from which it was taken, and no more.
[979] The trumpet gourd, the Cucurbita longior of Dodonæeus, is still employed, Fée says, by gardeners for this purpose.
[981] In B. xviii. c. 34.
[982] Though borrowed from Theophrastus and the Greek school, this distinction is absurd and unfounded.
[983] It is not the fact that the seed of the round kind, after repeated sowings, will produce long roots. Pliny, however, has probably miscopied Theophrastus, who says, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4, that this transformation takes place when the seed is sown very thick. This assertion, however, is no more founded on truth than that of Pliny.
[984] Also from Theophrastus, B. vii. c. 4, though that author is speaking of radishes, ῥαφανίδες, and not turnips.
[985] Properly radish.