This section is from the book "The Gardener's Monthly And Horticulturist V29", by Thomas Meehan. See also: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long.
A correspondent says: "Few people have any idea of the rapid growth of the fruit of the Snake Cucumber, Trichosanthes anguina. A plant growing on the premises of the writer, is bearing, at this time, two large gourds, one of which, by actual measurement, grew in twenty-six consecutive hours, 3 3/8 inches. The seed of this vine was started in a pot in a greenhouse, and when about 6 inches high was planted out in the open ground. It now covers on an arbor about 12 to 15 square feet and the prospects are that before it is killed by frost it will cover four or five times as much space".
 
Continue to: