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PUMPKIN

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 647 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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PUMPKIN , the See also:

FRUIT (through the French from the Lat. fructus; frui, to enjoy)

fruit of the See also:

GOURD

gourd Cucurbita Pepo, well-known in See also:

ENGLISH

English cottage gardens, and largely cultivated in See also:

CONTINENTAL

continental See also:

EUROPE

Europe and See also:

North See also:

AMERICA

America. The pumpkin varies much in See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form, being sometimes nearly globular, but more generally oblong or ovoid in shape; the rind is smooth and very variable in See also:

COLOUR (Lat. color, connected with celare, to hide, the root meaning, therefore, being that of a covering)

colour. It is a useful plant to the See also:

AMERICAN

American backwoods See also:

FARMER, RICHARD (1735–1787)

farmer, yielding, both in the ripe and unripe See also:

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

condition, a valuable See also:

FODDER

fodder for his See also:

CATTLE (Norman Fr. catel, from Late Lat. capitale, wealth or property, a word applied in the feudal system to movable property and particularly to live stock, and surviving in its wider meaning as " chattel " or " chattle ")

cattle and pigs, being frequently planted at intervals among the See also:

MAIZE, or INDIAN CORN

maize that constitutes his See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief See also:

CROP (a word common. in various forms, such as Germ. Kropf, to many Teutonic languages for a swelling, excrescence, round head or top of anything; it appears also in Romanic languages derived from Teutonic, in Fr. as troupe, whence the English " crupper "

crop. The larger kinds acquire a See also:

WEIGHT

weight of 40 to 80 lb but smaller varieties are in more esteem for See also:

GARDEN (from O. Fr. garden, mod. Fr. jardin; this, like our words " garth," a paddock attached to a building, and " yard," comes from a Teutonic word for an enclosure which appears in Gothic as gards and O. H. Ger. gart, cf. Dutch gaarde and Ger. .garten)

garden culture. When ripe, the pumpkin is boiled or baked, or made into various kinds of See also:

PIE

pie, alone or mixed with other fruit; while small and See also:

green it may be eaten like the See also:

VEGETABLE

vegetable marrow. The name squash is applied in America to this and other See also:

SPECIES

species of the genus Cucurbita. The name is adapted from an American See also:

INDIAN

Indian word (see L. H. See also:

Bailey, Cyclopaedia of American See also:

Horticulture, where is a See also:

fuller See also:

account of the squashes). Summer squashes are mostly varieties of C. Pepo; See also:

winter squashes are either C. See also:

MAXIMA

maxima or C. moschata, chiefly the former. The varieties of pumpkins and squashes are numerous and of See also:

GREAT

great variety in See also:

SIZE

size and shape; it is difficult to keep them pure if various kinds are grown together, but the true squashes (C. maxima) do not hybridize with the true pumpkin species.

If carefully handled to avoid cracking of the skin, and kept dry and fairly warm, winter squashes may be kept for months.

End of Article: PUMPKIN

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