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various forms: a tender tendril-vine, producing hard-shelled fruits in very many forms that are  
 
various forms: a tender tendril-vine, producing hard-shelled fruits in very many forms that are  
 
used for ornament and in the making of utensils; and the rampant vine makes a good temporary  
 
used for ornament and in the making of utensils; and the rampant vine makes a good temporary  
screen or cover.
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screen or cover.Plant musk-scented, with a sticky feeling, monoecious or dioecious: fls. solitary, white, funnelform, very soft in texture, withering in the sun; staminate fls. on very long, slender stalks (usually exceeding the lf.); pistillate fls. mostly short-stalked, with three 2-lobed stigmas and hairy ovary: tendrils forked, long and slender: st. striate-grooved, soft-hairy: lvs. large, soft-pubescent, cordate-ovate or reniform-ovate, sometimes angled, the edges obscurely apiculate-sinuate, on prominent or long petioles. L. leucantha, Rusby (Cucurbita Lagenaria, Linn. C. leucantha. Duch. L. vulgaris, Ser.), is widely grown in tropical countries and is often spontaneous; probably native in Trop. Afr. and Asia. To this species belong the gourds known in this country as Hercules' club, sugar-trough, dipper, snake, calabash, bottle, miniature bottle, depressa, and others: see Gourd. Vol. III. In some countries, the young fr. is said to be eaten as we eat summer squash.Lagenaria is a tender annual, which should receive the culture of squashes. The season in the
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northern states and Ont. is often too short for the full maturity of the frs., particularly if seeds
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have been brought from the S. Give a quick warm soil and sunny exposure. In the N., seeds may
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be started inside in pots, or on inverted sods, after the manner of cucumbers. The lagenarias are
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rampant growers, often running 30-40 ft., and covering the ground or a fence with a dense mass of
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large, roundish, soft lvs. It is exceedingly variable in its fr., and has received many species-names as L. microcarpa, R.H. 1855:61; L. clavata; L. pyrotheca, R.B. 23, p. 198; L. virginalis, white-fruited, G.C. III. 11:85; var. longissima, Gt. 48, p. 159; L. verrucosa, Hort., with ball-shaped very warty fr.. Gt. 39 (1890), p. 106. L. verrucosa var. Giordaniana, Hort., is a form with warty pear-shaped fr. The hard shells of the frs. are used for drinking-cups, water-jugs, and many domestic utensils. From the pear-shaped shell of a small-fruited form the Paraguayans drink their famous mate, or Ilex tea. Some of the commonest forms are shown in Fig. 2059. The long curved
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forms are often called snake gourds in this country (not to be confounded with snake cucumber,
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which is a Cucumis). These are sometimes several feet long. The form with a constricted middle is
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the bottle gourd. The grooved musical instrument in Spanish Amer. known as guira, guichara or
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caracho, is made from the gourds (marimbo) of this plant. The South African calabash pipes are
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derived from this plant and not from Crescentia.
 
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