st
Autumnal Marrows. They keep quite as well as the latter."

VALPARAISO.

Porter's Valparaiso. Commodore Porter.

Plant running; leaves large, not lobed, but cut in rounded angles on the
borders; fruit oval, about sixteen inches in length, ten or eleven
inches in diameter, slightly ribbed, and largest at the blossom-end,
which often terminates in a wart-like excrescence; skin cream-white,
sometimes smooth and polished, but often more or less reticulated, or
netted; flesh comparatively thick, orange-yellow, generally dry, sweet,
and well flavored, but sometimes fibrous and watery; seeds rather large,
nankeen-yellow, smooth and glossy.

The variety requires the whole season for its perfection. It hybridizes
readily with the Autumnal Marrow and kindred sorts, and is kept pure
with considerable difficulty. It is in use from September to spring. The
variety, if obtained in its purity, will be found of comparative
excellence, and well deserving of cultivation. Stripes and clouds of
green upon the surface are infallible evidences of mixture and
deterioration.

The late Dr. Harris, in a communication to the "Pennsylvania Farm
Journal," remarks as follows: "The Valparaiso squashes (of which there
seem to be several varieties, known to cultivators by many different
names, some of them merely local in their application) belong to a
peculiar group of the genus _Cucurbita_, the distinguishing characters
of which have not been fully described by botanists. The word 'squash,'
as applied to these fruits, is a misnomer, as may be shown hereafter. It
would be well to drop it entirely, and to call the fruits of this group
'pompions,' 'pumpkins,' or 'potirons.' It is my belief, that they were
originally indigenous to the tropical and sub-tropical parts of the
western coast of America. They are extensively cultivated from Chili to
California, and also in the West Indies; whence enormous specimens are
sometimes brought to the Atlantic States. How much soever these
Valparaiso pumpkins may differ in form, size, color, and quality, they
all agree in certain peculiarities that are found in no other species or
varieties of _Cucurbita_. Their leaves are never deeply lobed like those
of other pumpkins and squashes, but are more or less five-angled, or
almost rounded and heart-shaped, at base: they are also softer than
those of other pumpkins and squashes. The summit, or blossom-end, of the
fruit has a nipple-like projection upon it, consis