ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 339 



kins of New Netherland (1G42-53), adds : " The natives have 

 another species of this vegetable peculiar to themselves, called 

 by our people ' quaasiens,' a name derived from the aborigines, 

 as the plant was not known to us before our intercourse with 

 them. It is a delightful fruit, as well to the eye on account 

 of its fine variety of colors, as to the mouth for its agreeable 

 taste. ... It is gathered early in summer, and when it is 

 planted in the middle of April, the fruit is fit for eating by 

 the first of June. They do not wait for it to ripen before 

 making use of the fruit, but only until it has attained a certain 

 size. They gather the squashes and immediately place them 

 on the fire without any further trouble. . . . The natives 

 make great account of this vegetable." (Descript. of N. Neth- 

 erlands, 1656 ; transl. in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 2 ser., i. 186.) 



Thus far we have cited, with one or two exceptions, Amer- 

 ican authorities. M. De CandoUe, after mentioning " the 

 three forms of Pepones figured by Dodoens, edition of 1557, 

 to which a fourth, P. rotundAis major, was added in the edi- 

 tion of 1616," and a figure of P. ohlongus, in Lobel. " Icones," 

 641, observes, that " the names given to these plants indicate 

 a foreign origin ; but the authors can affirm nothing in this 

 regard ; the less so, because the name Indian signifies, either, 

 of southern Asia or of America" (p. 204). A collation of 

 the descriptions of Pepones or Cucurbitse, given by European 

 botanists of the sixteenth century, does away with this am- 

 biguity. 



Tragus (Hieron. Bock), "De Stirpium Noraenclaturis," 

 etc., 1552, p. 830, described and figured Melo, Pepo, Cucumis, 

 and Citreolus ; and (p. 832) named, also, Cucumis sylves- 

 tris. In the next chapter (p. 834) he wrote " De Cucumere 

 sen, ut vulgo loquuntur, Zucco marino " — with a figure. 

 " Many kinds of strange plants," he says, " have been brought 

 from remote parts into Germany, in the last few years." 

 Among others, these " poma sestiva," of which some are large, 

 some small, some round, some oblong, some sweet, others 

 bitter, of various colors. " Some call these ' Cucumeri,' and 

 assert that they are ' Turkish Cucumeres,' with which opinion 

 I cannot agree. ... I call them Mala oistiva & Indica," of 



