BOTTLE-GOURD, Lagcnarin, from Lat. lvgena, a hcttle, a genus of plants of the natural order cueurbitacem (9.v.), nearly allied to the gourd (q.v.) genus (cocurbita), in which it was until recently included. One of the most marked distinctions between them is the very tumid border of the seeds of the bottle-gourds, which have also all the anthers separate, and have white flowers, whilst those of the gourds proper are yellow. The common bottle-gourd, or false calabash (lagenaria rulgaris), is a native of India, but is now common almost everywhere in warm climates. It is a climbing musky scented annual, clothed with sort down, having its flowers in clusters, and a large fruit, from 1 to even 6 ft. in length, which is usually shaped like a bottle, an urn, or a club. The fruit has a hard rind, and when the pulp is removed, and the rind dried, it Is used in many countries for holding water, and is generally called a ealatash (q.v.). The bottle-gourd, in its wild state, is very bitter and poisonous, and even in cultivation, some of its varieties exhibit not a little of the bitterness and purgative properties of coin cvntli (q.v.). Other varieties, however. have at cooling edible pulp. This is most per
fectly the case, in general, with those which attain the greatest luxuriance. The bottle gourd appears to have been introduced into Europe about the close of the 16th c.. but it requires for its advantageous cultivation a warmer climate than that of any part of Britain. where, although it succeeds well enough on a hotbed, it is chiefly known as an object of curiosity. It is, however. much cultivated in warmer countries as an esculent, and is an important article of food to the poorer Arabs, who boil it with vinegar, or make at pudding of it in its own rind with rice and meat.
Another species. L. idololatrica, is a sacred plant of the Hindus, much employed In their religious ceremonies.