LAGENARIA VULGARIS. Serr.
Cucurbita lagenaria, Linn., Bottle gourd. Charrah, . . . . ARAB. White pumpkin, . ENG. Kodu, Lau, . . . BENG. Kaddu, . . . HIND.
Hu-lu, . . . . CHIN. Tomra kaddu, „ Quara tauvil, . . EGYPT. Labe ambon, . . MALAY.
Quara m'davar, . „ Bella shora, . MALEAL.
Dubha dibhe, .. „ Soriai-kai, . . . Tam.
Calabash, . . . ENG. Sorakaia, . . . TEL.
The bottle gourd, from Lagena, a bottle, is com monly cultivated by the natives, to whom it is of some importance as food ; but is seldom eaten by Europeans, being very coarse. In Tenasserim, the bottle gourd grows luxuriantly, and several varieties may be seen. In China, its soft downy herbage is sometimes eaten. Its long fruit bulges at the further end, and into very odd shapes. It is there made into calabashes, floats, dishes, beggars' platters, musical instruments, and recep tacles for drugs. The long white gourds are hollowed out, and made into buoys for rafts for crossing rivers. The largo round kind are used for making a kind of stringed instrument like a sitar, called in Tamil Kiunayri, and are hence termed Kiunayri soriai-kai: A longer and narrow sort are employed in making the wind instruments, called in Tamil Maghadi, with which the snake men (Pam pudarer, TAM.) entice snakes from
their holes. In China the dried bottle gourds arc tied to the backs of children on board the boats to assist them in floating if they should unluckily fall overboard. The dried outer rind of the fruit is hard, and is used as a bottle, called the fakir's bottle. In its wild state, this plant, or a variety of it, produces a poisonous fruit ; and Dr. Royle states that a very intelligent native doctor in formed him that cases of poisoning have occurred from eating the bitter pulp. Some sailors also are said to have died from drinking beer that had been standing in a flask made from one of those gourds. Don says that the poor people among the Arabians eat the edible kind boiled with vinegar, or fill the shells with rice and meat, and so make a kind of pudding of it. The pulp of the fruit is often employed in poultices ; it is bitter and purgative, and may be used instead of colocynth. The seeds, Doodee seed, yield a bland oil, and they are given in headaches.—Joffrey ; Mason ; O'Sh.; Powell; Eng. Cyc. ; Dr. J. Stewart ; Roxb.; Voiyt, Useful Plants ; Smith, M.M.C.