The Germans cultivate this plant in extensive fields, for various economical purposes, but particularly for the feeding of swine, and other animals. They cut it into pieces, and throw it into fish-ponds, as food for carp. Little trouble is required in its culture; and it will flourish on any tolerable soil, in a warm and sheltered situation. The pulp is served at table in various forms, but particularly in pies, and as an ingredient in puddings and pancakes. The Americans frequently gather pumpkins when half grown, and eat them boiled as a sauce to meat. If the seeds be subjected to pressure, they will yield a proportion of oil so great as nearly to amount to their own weight; and, when ground with water, they afford a cooling and nutritious kind of milk.
226. The BOTTLE GOURD is an American fruit with woody rind, and of very various shape, belonging to the same tribe as the pumpkin, and produced by a creeping plant (Cucurbita lagenaria) with somewhat angular and downy leaves, each having two glands at the base underneath.
This fruit is at first green, but when ripe, it assumes a dull yellow colour; and the flesh is spongy and very white. Its size and shape are so varied, that it would be impossible to describe them; sometimes it has a long slender part next the stalk, like the neck of a bottle; sometimes it is swollen, and sometimes of great length, and of form so curved as to be shaped almost like a bugle horn, or the musical instrument called a serpent.
So hard and strong is the rind of the bottle-gourd, that this, when freed from the pulp, is frequently converted by the Americans, as well as the inhabitants of the West Indies, into drinking cups, flagons, bottles, and other domestic utensils; but, on being first used, it communicates a disagreeable taste to the juices contained in it. The pulp, boiled with vinegar, is sometimes eaten.
227. The WATER MELON (Cucurbita citrullus) is a roundish or oblong species of gourd, with thin smooth rind, marked with star-like spots, the leaves deeply divided into lobes, and the flowers somewhat resembling those of the cucumber.
Persons who have visited hot climates know well how to appreciate the grateful coolness and delicious flavour of the water melon, the flesh of which is so succulent that it melts in the mouth; and the central pulp of which is fluid, like that of the cocoa-nut, and may be sucked, or poured out through a hole in the rind, and thus made to afford a most refreshing beverage.
To the inhabitants of Egypt, China, the East Indies, and other countries, where they are cultivated to a great extent, water melons are extremely valuable, both as food and physic. They are allowed to be eaten in fevers, and other inflammatory complaints. Their flesh or pulp is, in general, of reddish colour; one kind, however, called by the French pastèque, has a whitish green pulp. The latter are frequently pickled in vinegar, like gerkins; and are eaten in fricassees, or baked in sweet wine.
Both these varieties may be grown in our gardens, under hot-bed frames, in the same manner as cucumbers.
TETRANDRIA.
228. The BIRCH (Betula alba) is a forest-tree, easily known by the smooth appearance and silvery colour of its bark, by its leaves being somewhat triangular, but acute, their smallness in comparison with those of other timber trees, and by the small branches being slender and flexible.