Paperback(Reprint)
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780806125725 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Oklahoma Press |
| Publication date: | 09/15/1993 |
| Edition description: | Reprint |
| Pages: | 248 |
| Sales rank: | 855,249 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.64(d) |
About the Author
Charles B. Heiser, Jr., received the Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley and was Professor of Botany in Indiana University. He authored several books on botanical subjects, among them The Sunflower, also published by the University of Oklahoma Press.
Read an Excerpt
The Gourd Book
By Charles B. Heiser Jr.
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS
Copyright © 1979 University of Oklahoma PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8061-5567-8
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Although I expect that most people who read this book will have a pretty good idea as to what a gourd is, I shall begin by trying to define "gourd" as well as "calabash." This is not as easy as one might think.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word in its first sense is used for the large fleshy fruit of trailing or climbing plants of the botanical family Cucurbitaceae, and specifically for the fruit of the bottle gourd. The word first appeared as "gourdys" in 1303, as "goordis" in 1382, and around 1440 in the Promptorium Parvulorum, the first English-Latin dictionary, we find "goorde" translated as "cucumber ... Cucurbita ... coloquintida." Although the word gourd today is used in England to include the pumpkins and squashes, this could not have been so in the fourteenth century, for squashes and pumpkins had not yet reached Europe from the Americas. By 1555 we find one writer speaking of "melones, gourdes, cucumbers, and such other," so apparently several plants were being called "gourd" by that time. This may well have included the bottle gourd, which was fairly well known in Europe by then. The bottle gourd was grown in England before 1597, for the herbalist John Gerard's description leaves no doubt as to the plant he called "gourd." In 1624, Capt. John Smith wrote that the "chief instruments or Rattles" of the Virginia Indians were made of "small gourds or Pumpeon shells," almost certainly a reference to the bottle gourd.
Words may change their meaning with the passage of time, and for most of us it makes little difference how the word gourd was once used. So we can leave the origin of gourd and its changing meanings to others and turn to modern usage. The American botanist and authority on cultivated plants L. H. Bailey in his book Garden of Gourds, 1937, pointed out that in common language in North America a gourd is a hard-shelled durable fruit grown for ornament, utensils, and general interest. This is the definition that I shall accept. Bailey included several "gourds" in his book that do not meet his definition, and I shall likewise do so.
Bailey limited his gourds to the family Cucurbitaceae. There is one plant, however, that does not belong to this family but meets his definition of a gourd. This is the calabash tree, or tree gourd, native to tropical America. One might perhaps use the word calabash for the fruit of this tree and reserve the word gourd for the fruit of certain cucurbits, but the words cannot be separated so readily. "Calabash," calabaza in Spanish, calebasse in French, is probably from a Persian word meaning "melon." The word calabash is often used for the fruit of the American tree, but in Africa it has long been applied to the fruit of the bottle gourd, an entirely different plant. In fact, the two words were early regarded as synonymous, for in 1596 we find Sir Walter Raleigh calling "for his calabaza or gourds...." Today it seems hopeless to try to make any distinction between "calabash" and "gourd."
By now it should have become apparent that common names of plants can be very ambiguous and that we need names that are precise. Such precision is provided by scientific names, for although a plant may have many common names it can have only one scientific name. An explanation of taxonomic categories and of the cucurbit family will help clear up some of the confusion that may have been introduced in the previous paragraphs.
The basic unit of classification is the species. As a rule, a species has several characteristics that distinguish it from other species. Its distinctness is preserved because all members of a species are able to interbreed freely, but they will not cross readily with other species. However, by no means is a species uniform in all of its characters, as is quite apparent in the human species. We shall also find that most species of gourds are quite variable in some of their characteristics, particularly those that relate to the size, shape, and color of the fruit. A group of related species makes up a genus (plural, genera). A genus, like a species, also generally shares certain features in common that separate it from other genera. A group of related genera, in turn, makes up a family. There are over three hundred families of flowering plants. The family of greatest concern to us here is the Cucurbitaceae, for all but one of the gourds belong to this family.
The cucurbit family comprises over one hundred genera and less than a thousand species, most of which are tropical. These plants may be characterized as follows: mostly tendril-bearing vines; leaves alternately arranged on the stem, usually five-lobed or divided; flowers usually unisexual, male (staminate) and female (pistillate) borne on the same plant, or sometimes on separate plants; sepals, five; corolla of five petals, separate to the base or united; stamens, five, or sometimes fewer, anthers frequently somewhat fused; ovary inferior, that is, borne below the sepals and petals, becoming a fruit with a soft or hard (as in the true gourds) outer covering and usually containing many seeds attached in three places on the outer wall. Botanically speaking, the fruit is a special type of berry known as a pepo. (If any of the foregoing terms are unfamiliar, they may be found in any good dictionary.)
Many of the characteristics listed above are also found in other families, but in combination they serve to distinguish the Cucurbitaceae from all other families of plants.
Members of the family are not very common in the wild in the United States (with the exception of the buffalo gourd in the Southwest), but some of them are very familiar in cultivation. They include pumpkins and squashes, various species of the genus Cucurbita; the watermelon, Citrullus vulgaris; and the cucumber and muskmelon, different species of Cucumis.
One does not have to know the characters of the family to grow and enjoy gourds, of course, but such knowledge might increase one's enjoyment. It also might be practical, as in the case of the new gardener who was puzzled because his squash plant (it could well have been a gourd) was producing many flowers but few fruits. So he asked his neighbor, who happened to be a biochemist affiliated with the botany department of a nearby university, what was wrong with his plants. The biochemist thought about it and finally said that perhaps his plant needed more fertilizer. The next day at a staff meeting the biochemist happened to mention his neighbor's problem, whereupon the taxonomist gently informed him that squash plants have separate male and female flowers; and one could hardly expect the former to produce fruits. In fact, a plant will usually bear far more male flowers than it does female; and often times it may produce several male flowers before any female flowers appear.
To introduce the gourds — both the true gourds and most of the other plants that are commonly called gourds — I present the key on page 6. The key gives two choices, and if one has a plant at hand he may, by making the correct choices, identify it. But if the key doesn't serve that purpose, one shouldn't be overly concerned, for it should still be possible to identify the plant by means of the descriptions and illustrations to be given in other chapters of this book.
1. The calabash tree, or tree gourd, Crescentia cujete, native to tropical America, belongs to the family Bignoniaceae. This family includes the catalpa tree and the trumpet creeper, both better known in the United States than the tree gourd. It also includes the tropical sausage tree, Kigelia pinnata, which has somewhat gourd-like fruits, one to one and a half feet long, hanging on long stalks. The tree gourd has fruits that are used for utensils, musical instruments, and for decoration, much the same way as the bottle gourd is used. (Chapter 2.)
2. The bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, is apparently native to Africa but had spread to both Asia and the Americas in prehistoric times. How it reached America from Africa is still an unsolved problem. Its large durable fruits have made it extremely useful to man, and it is the plant that is most often meant when the name gourd is used. It will be the subject of the last half of this book.
3. The genus Cucurbita contains several species that are of interest. First, there are the several wild species in the Americas, whose small fruits can be classed as gourds. One of these, the buffalo gourd, Cucurbita foetidissima, a common plant in the southwestern United States, receives some treatment in a later chapter. There are five cultivated species, which include our familiar squashes and pumpkins. The squashes and pumpkins do not belong to any single species. In fact, these common names have no precise botanical meaning, and there is no real distinction between a squash and a pumpkin. Four of these cultivated species also include plants called gourds. These are the ornamental gourds belonging to Cucurbita pepo; the Malabar or fig-leaf gourd, C. ficifolia; the silver-seed gourd, C. mixta; and the turban gourds, C. maxima. Of these only the ornamental gourds can be considered true gourds, but all of them will be treated here in due time. (Chapter 4.)
All of the other gourds given in the key might be called false gourds, because their fruits do not meet the definition of true gourds. But inasmuch as the name gourd seems strongly attached to them, they are included in this book.
4. The loofah gourds (Luffa aegyptiaca and L. acutangula), both native to tropical Asia, are grown for the fibrous interior of their fruits, which are widely used as sponges as well as in other ways. (Chapter 5.)
5. The wax gourd, Benincasa hispida, also from tropical Asia, is grown primarily as a food plant and is particularly important in the Orient. The fruit reaches lengths of sixteen inches and is covered with a white wax at maturity. Although the fruits may not be true gourds, I have known some to last longer than two years. (Chapter 6.)
6. The snake gourd (Trichosanthes cucumerina), primarily a food plant in India and southeastern Asia, is sometimes grown for its curious fruits, which may be quite slender and reach lengths of six feet. It is also well worth growing for its delicately fringed, fragrant flowers. (Chapter 6.)
7. The bitter gourd, Momordica charantia, is perhaps better known as the "balsam pear." It is native to the Old World tropics, but today it is fairly widely grown in the Americas as a food or medicinal plant or as an ornamental for its curious fruit and rather attractive foliage. The name bitter gourd is also sometimes used for other gourds. (Chapter 6.)
8. and 9. The teasel gourd, Cucumis dipsaceus, and the hedgehog gourd, Cucumis metuliferus, will be treated together, for they belong to the same genus. Both are native to Africa and are grown in this country solely for their curious fruits. (Chapter 6.)
There are still other plants called gourd — for example, the fluted gourd, Telfairia occidentalis, the ivy gourd, Coccinia indica, and the round gourd, Praecitrullus fistulosus — that are rather poorly known and so far as I know are not grown in the United States. They will not be treated in this book. There is one gourd that is not grown in the United States, however, that will be included. As anyone familiar with the Bible knows, gourds are mentioned in connection with Jonah and Elisha. Exactly what plants are meant is far from certain, but they will make a good place to start our account.
CHAPTER 2Gourds of the Bible
And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. Jonah 4:6.
There are great difficulties in trying to identify precisely the plants mentioned in the Bible. Most recent authorities, however, agree that Jonah's "gourd" is not a gourd at all, nor even a member of the family Cucurbitaceae, but rather the castor-bean plant. In some versions of the Bible, Palma Christi, which is a name for the castor bean, is given instead of gourd. The castor bean is a rapid grower, reaching heights of fifteen feet or more in a single season, and has rather large leaves, so it could qualify as a good shade plant. Some earlier writers on the subject did maintain that Jonah's plant was a gourd, one claiming that it was the ornamental gourd (Cucurbita pepo var. ovifera). This gourd, however, was not known in the Old World until after the discovery of America, which certainly eliminates it from consideration. If Jonah's gourd were a true gourd, the most likely candidate would be the bottle gourd, which was known in Egypt around 2000 B.C. Some modern translators of the Bible avoid all the difficulties by changing "gourd" to "plant."
And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. 2 Kings 4:39–40.
There does seem to be agreement that the gourd in 2 Kings, or Elisha's gourd, is the colocynth, sometimes called the bitter or wild gourd, Citrullus colocynthis. It is a member of the cucurbit family and belongs to the same genus as the watermelon. The plant is found in western Asia, parts of the Mediterranean area, and Africa. It is a vine with yellow flowers and gourdlike fruits about the size and shape of a small orange. The fruits contain a soft pulp that is exceedingly bitter and poisonous. It was formerly widely used as a purgative and still has use in medicine as a drug. It is also reported that the fruits are used for keeping moths out of clothing and that the root was used in northern Rhodesia "for homicidal purposes." Arabs have used the pulverized fruit in the preparation of gunpowder, tinder, and fuses. The seeds are not ordinarily eaten, but after long boiling to remove the poison they have been used for food. Donkeys are said to be the only animals to eat the fruits, but some other animals may graze on the leaves. It is not unlikely that the fruit on sight might be mistaken for an edible melon, but one taste would erase any doubt. It is also considered by some who have written on the subject that "gall" in the Old Testament, usually referred to in connection with wormwood as "symbolic of bitter calamity," is the colocynth. The "vine of Sodom" may also be this plant.
And the cedar of the house within was carved with knops and open flowers. ... 1 Kings 6:18.
And under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast. 1 Kings 7:24.
Some modern translations of the Bible give "gourds" for the "knops" of the King James Version, but exactly what plant, if indeed it was even a plant, Solomon used to decorate the temple must remain a mystery.
CHAPTER 3Tree Gourds
In many accounts of the gourds, or calabashes, of tropical America, it is often difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether the writer is referring to the tree gourd or the bottle gourd. This is not surprising, for the same name may be used for both, and the fruits are used in similar ways.
The plants that bear the two gourds are quite different, however, and anyone who has seen the calabash tree is not likely to forget it. Even botanists who are familiar with the great diversity of plants have referred to this tree loaded with its green, pumpkinlike fruits as an almost unbelievable sight. Even without fruit, the long, nearly horizontal branches with leaves clustered at intervals give the tree a distinctive appearance.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Gourd Book by Charles B. Heiser Jr.. Copyright © 1979 University of Oklahoma Press. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface to the Paperback Edition,Preface to the First Edition,
Part I. Miscellaneous Gourds,
1. Introduction,
2. Gourds of the Bible,
3. Tree Gourds,
4. The Cucurbita Gourds,
5. The Loofahs,
6. Various Other Gourds,
Part II. The Bottle Gourd,
7. General Considerations,
8. A Personal Note,
9. Gourds across the Ocean, I. Cultural Diffusion versus Independent Invention,
10. Gourds across the Ocean, II. Our Mother, the Gourd,
11. Uses: General,
12. Uses: Penis Sheaths,
13. Uses: Decorated Gourds,
14. Uses: Musical Instruments,
15. The Gourd in Myth, Legend, and Fable,
Appendix,
References,
Notes,
Index,