CHAYOTE, a climbing vine (Sechium edule), belong-4 to the Cucurbi Mem., or gourd family The leaves are strongly three-angled or lob!, with the broadly cordate base also showing .o or four sharp corners. They are deeply cottve, have a rough surface with whitish veins ar in color are of a deep fresh green. The Pistate flowers are solitary; the much more nun.ous staminate flowers are borne on special brl-hes. Pollina tion takes place through the agLy of insects. The is always one-celled, ith a single ovule. It is mealy-pubescent wit, young, be coming spiny with maturity in so, varieties. The mature fruits are always Tr, or less compressed, as though built over triarge flat seed. In general they are pear-shapebut vary, in their proportions. They weigh Co eight ounces to a pound each and fruits three pounds have been reported. 1 avor they resemble summer squash or '..table i marrow. The chayote is produced tame quantities in Porto Rico for sumption and it has recently attained P4ar ity in Australia and Algeria, from ter country many hundreds of tons are sh,,d annually to Paris and London. It bears went well, an 8- or 10-day journey not affect ing its condition. It is in common use as a vegetable in Madeira, Mexico, Central Amer ica, the West Indies, California and Louisiana. It was first reported in Europe by Francisco Hernandez, who found the plant in Mexico about 1560 and described the fruit as suggest ing the flavor of roasted oysters, sweet po tatoes or chestnuts. It produces tuberous
roots which resemble the yam or cassava. In Mexico the young shoots are sometimes boiled and eaten like asparagus. Both the fruit and the vine are used as fodder for cattle and hogs, and the vines are sometimes used for fancy basket-work and the manufacture of women's hats. The flowers yield an abundance of nec tar and are said to be of value to bees. As an ornamental vine the chayote takes high rank, a single vine being reported as covering a fence 6 feet high and 50 feet long in a few months.
The fruit is eaten in a variety of ways— boiled and seasoned with pepper and salt ; par boiled and fried; stuffed and baked; in pud dings, tarts or fritters, etc.
The name appears to be a form of the Aztec word chayotl, meaning °a head bristling with spines" or a "squash covered with thorns? The popular names are in many cases corrup tions of the Aztec term, as the Porto Rican toyote; but in the West Indies and Australia it is known as chocho; in Louisiana as ton; and as °vegetable pear" in some parts of the British West Indies.