Vol. VI, No. 13.] BULLETIN oF THE TorREY Boranicat Cius. [New York, Jan, 1876. 
- § 72. Vegetables cultivated by the American Indians.—I. 
* Some lived only by hunting ; others had fields of waving corn, 
and raised also beans, pumpkins, tobacco, American hemp, and sun- 
flowers.” Higginson’s “ Young Folks’ History of the United States,” 
p. 14. Boston, 1875, é 
Similar statements are found -in ‘all our histories, and are de- 
rived from the accounts of the earliest European visitors that have 
left us their story. Yet the American origin of most of these 
plants has been disputed. Even A. De Candolle, who has dis- 
cussed such questions with the greatest learning and ability (Geog. 
Bot., Chap. 1X.), is not convinced that this continent can lay claim 
to any of the cultivated Cucurbitacee. On the other hand, Asa 
Gray gives Cucurbita ovifera, L. (“the Orange-Gourd, Egg- 
Gourd, ete.”),; as “ wild in Texas,” and “ probably the original of all 
this group,” viz. C. Pepo (Pumpkin) [C. Pepo, a, L., C. maxima, 
Duch ?], C. verrucosa, L. (“ Warty, Long neck, and Crook-neck 
Squash, Vegetable Marrow, etc.”) Field, Forest and Garden 
Botany, New York, 1868, Dr. Gray, ibidem, agrees with De Can- 
dolle that Lagenaria vulgaris, Ser., (Bottle Gourd) is not a native. 
' Tn examining this question a remark of De Candolle’s is note- 
worthy. In accounting for the potato in South Carolina, he says: 
“The voyage of Raleigh took place 95 years after the discovery of 
America, It is not impossible that the potato, now for a consider- 
able time carried by the Spaniards from place to place, may have 
been recently introduced into North America by some unknown 
navigator, and the little diffusion of its culture among the aborigi- 
nes, in particular towards the north, where it succeeds so well, 
would show that the introduction was not very ancient.” As an 
illustration of such a possibility Champlain ( Voyages, Paris, 1613, 
p. 7,) found in “Visle de Sable . . . des herbages que pastfi- 
rent des boeufs et des vaches que les Portugais y porterent il y a 
plus de 60 ans.” .Champlain, by the way, does not seem to be 
quoted by De Candolle. 
One of DeCandolle’s difficulties in admitting the American 
origin of cultivated Cucurbits is the absence of native names. To 
meet this objection we applied to the eminent philologist, Dr. 
Trumbull of Hartford. Uis answer, which follows, not only re- 
moves that difficulty, but is rich in learning important to the 
subject. t 
Hartrorp, Conn., Jan. Tth, 1876. 
* * * J could never discover where the doubt came in, as to the 
- American origin of several well-known varieties of (to quote old 
Parkinson) “ these Gourds, or Millions as some call them, or Pomp- 
ions as I may call them.” A: 
First, for the northern varieties of “Squash.” In the last edi- 
tion of Webster's Dictionary, I gave briefly the origin and meaning 
of the name, and more fully in a note to my edition of Roger Wil- 
liam’s “ Key,” p. 125. It is unquestionably of Algonkin origin. 
The root, asz, denotes something ¢mmature or not complete: hence, 
it takes the two-fold meaning, raw (i.e. not cooked) and green (not 
ripe). It became the generic name of fruits and vegetables which 
