the GOURD, and POMPION: A genus of the syngenesia order, belonging to the monoeia clas of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 34th order, Cucurbitaceae. The calyx of the male is quinquedentated; the corolla quinquefied; the filaments three. The calyx of the female is quinquedentated; the corolla quinquefied; the pistil quinquefied; the seeds of the apple with a tumid margin. There are five species.

1. The lagenaria, or bottle gourd, rises with thick trailing downy stalks, branching into many spreading runners. These extend along the ground sometimes 15 or 20 feet in length. The leaves are large, roundish, heart-shaped, indented, and woolly. The flowers are large and white, succeeded by long incurvated whitish yellow fruit, obtaining from about two to five or six feet in length, and from about nine to 24 inches in circumference, having a ligneous and durable shell.

2. The papo or pompion, commonly called pump-kin, Cucurbita kin, hath strong, trailing, rough stalks, branching into numerous runners. These are much larger than the former, extending from 10 to 40 or 50 feet each way. These are garnished with large, roundish, lobated, rough leaves, and yellow flowers. The flowers are succeeded by large, round, smooth fruit, of different forms and sizes; some as big as a peck, others as big as half a bushel measure; some considerably less, and others not exceeding the bulk of an orange; ripening to a yellow, and sometimes to a whitish colour. This species is the most hardy of any, as well as the most extensive in their growth. A single plant, if properly encouraged, will overspread 10 or 15 rods of ground, and produce a great number of fruit, which, when young, are generally a mixture between a deep blue and pale white, but change as they increase in bulk.

3. The verrucosa, or warted gourd, hath trailing stalks very branchy, and running upon the ground 10 or 15 feet each way; large lobated leaves, and yellow flowers, succeeded by roundish, knobby, warted white fruit, of moderate size.

4. The melopepo, erect gourd, or squash. This rises with an erect strong stalk several feet high, rarely sending forth side-runners, but becoming bushy upward. It is adorned with large lobated leaves; and the flowers are succeeded by depressed knotty fruit, both white and yellow, commonly of a moderate size.

5. The lignosa, ligneous shelled gourd, often called calabash. This hath trailing stalks, branching into runners, which extend far every way; the leaves are large, lobated, and rough; the flowers yellow, and are succeeded by roundish smooth fruit of a moderate size, with hard woody shells. Of all these species there are a great many varieties, and the fruit of every species is observed to be surprisingly apt to change its form.

Culture. All the species of gourds and pompions, with their respective varieties, are raised from seed sown annually in April or the beginning of May, either with or without the help of artificial heat. But the plants forwarded in a hot-bed till about a month old, produce fruit a month or six weeks earlier on that account, and ripen proportionably sooner. The first species particularly will scarce ever produce tolerably sized fruit in this country without the treatment above mentioned.

Uses. In this country these plants are cultivated only for curiosity; but in the places where they are natives, they answer many important purposes. In both the Indies, bottle-gourds are very commonly cultivated and sold in the markets. They make the principal food of the common people, particularly in the warm months of June, July, and August. The Arabians call this kind of gourd charrah. It grows commonly on the mountains in these deserts. The natives boil and season it with vinegar; and sometimes, filling the shell with rice and meat, make a kind of pudding of it. The hard shell is used for holding water, and some of them are capacious enough to contain 22 gallons; these, however, are very uncommon. The fruit of the pompion likewise constitutes a great part of the food of the common people during the hot months, in those places where they grow. If gathered when not much bigger than a hen's or goose egg, and properly seasoned with butter, vinegar, &c., they make a tolerable good sauce for butcher's meat, and are also used in soups. In England they are seldom used till grown to maturity. A hole is then made in one side, through which the pulp is scooped out; after being divested of the seeds, it is mixed with sliced apples, milk, sugar, and grated nutmeg; and thus a kind of pudding is made. The whole is then baked in the oven, and goes by the name of a pumpkin pie. For this purpose the plants are cultivated in many places of England by the country people, who raise them upon old dung hills. The third species is also used in North America for culinary purposes. The fruit is gathered when about half grown, boiled, and eaten as sauce to butcher's meat. The squashes are also treated in the same manner, and by some people esteemed delicate eating.

CUCURBITACEÆ, the name of the 34th order in Linnaeus's fragments of a natural method, consisting of plants which resemble the gourd in external figure, habit, virtues, and sensible qualities. This order contains the following genera, viz. Gronovia, melothria, pasiflora, anguria, bryonia, cucumis, cucurbita, fevillea, momordica, ficosy, trichosanthes.