PUMPKIN  , the

fruit of the gourd Cucurbita Pepo, well-known in English cottage gardens, and largely cultivated in continental Europe and North America . The pumpkin varies much in form, being sometimes nearly globular, but more generally oblong or ovoid in shape; the rind is smooth and very variable in colour . It is a useful plant to the American backwoods farmer, yielding, both in the ripe and unripe condition, a valuable fodder for his cattle and pigs, being frequently planted at intervals among the maize that constitutes his chief crop . The larger kinds acquire a weight of 40 to 80 lb but smaller varieties are in more esteem for garden culture . When ripe, the pumpkin is boiled or baked, or made into various kinds of pie, alone or mixed with other fruit; while small and green it may be eaten like the vegetable marrow . The name squash is applied in America to this and other species of the genus Cucurbita . The name is adapted from an American Indian word (see L . H . Bailey, Cyclopaedia of American Horticulture, where is a fuller account of the squashes) . Summer squashes are mostly varieties of C . Pepo; winter squashes are either C. maxima or C. moschata, chiefly the former . The varieties of pumpkins and squashes are numerous and of great variety in size and shape; it is difficult to keep them pure if various kinds are grown together, but the true squashes (C. maxima) do not hybridize with the true pumpkin species .

If carefully handled to avoid cracking of the skin, and kept dry and fairly warm, winter squashes may be kept for months .