This section is from "The Horticulturist, And Journal Of Rural Art And Rural Taste", by P. Barry, A. J. Downing, J. Jay Smith, Peter B. Mead, F. W. Woodward, Henry T. Williams. Also available from Amazon: Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste.
Herewith I tend you a few seeds of a vegetable celled " Loof" brought from Grand Cairo, in Egypt, last year by my uncle, Rev. Dr. Dorr, of Philadelphia, which he hat just seat me for cultivation.
The fruit is described as resembling a Cucumber, from which, after the ripe and decaying pulp has been washed away, a fibrous substance is left very much in appearance like fine manilla grass, but woven by the great Architect into a beautiful woof with three ornamental rows of seed cells, slightly raised from the ground-work, in admirable adaptation for the purpose to which it is applied. This is used by the Turks, in their baths, as a wash-cloth; or, when dry, as a flesh-brush of which I have a specimen about eleven inches long by three inches wide, (which I shall be happy to show you hereafter,) the full size of the fruit, cut longitudinally, which I am told grows on a vine resembling our common Gourd.
Please plant the seeds in your green-house and see what they may come to. J. Dorr. - Scotts. vills, N. Y.
Mr. Dots will accept our thanks for the seeds; they are put in the way of growing.
 
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