PLANTS CULTIVATED FOE THEIR FRUITS. 245 



Gourd/ or Calabash — Lagenaria vulgaris, Seringe ; 

 Cucurbita lagenaria, Linnaeus. 



The fruit of this Giir cubit acea has taken different 

 forms in cultivation, but from a general observation of 

 the other parts of the plant, botanists have ranked them 

 in one species which comprises several varieties.^ The 

 most remarkable are the pi?^ri77i's gourd, in the form of 

 a bottle, the long-necked gourd, the trumpet gourd, and 

 the ccdabash, generally large and without a neck. Other 

 less common varieties have a flattened, very small fruit, 

 like the snuff-hox gourd. The species may always be 

 recognized by its white flower, and by the hardness of 

 the outer rind of the fruit, which allows of its use as a 

 vessel for liquids, or a reservoir of air suitable as a buoy 

 for novices in swimming. The flesh is sometimes sweet 

 and eatable, sometimes bitter and even purgative. 



Linnaeus^ pronounced the species to be American. 

 De Candolle * thought it was probably of Indian origin, 

 and this opinion has since been confii-med. 



Lagenaria vulgaris has been found wild on the 

 coast of Malabar and in the humid forests of Deyra Doon.^ 

 Roxburgh ^ considered it to be wild in India, although 

 subsequent floras give it only as a cultivated species. 

 Lastly, Rumphius "^ mentions wild plants of it on the sea- 

 shore in one of the Moluccas. Authors generally note 

 that the pulp is bitter in these wUd plants, but this is 

 sometimes the case in cultivated forms. The Sanskrit 

 language already distinguished the common go\\T^,idavou, 

 and another, bitter, kutou-toumbi, to which Pictet also 

 attributes the name tiktaha or tiktiha.^ Seemann ^ saw 



^ The word gourd is also used in English for Cucurbita maxima. 

 This is one of the examples of the confusion in common names and the 

 greater accuracy of scientific terms. 



2 Naudin, Annales des Sc. Nat., 4th series, vol. xii. p. 91 ; Cogniaux, 

 in our Monog. Phanerog., iii. p. 417. 



^ Linnaeus, Species Plantaruni, p. 1434, under Cucurhita. 



* A. P. de Candolle, Flora Frangaise (1805), vol. iii. p. 692. 



5 Rheede, Malabar, iii. pis. 1, 5 ; Royle, III. Himal., p. 218. 



6 Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., edit. 1832, vol. iii. p. 719. 



7 Rumphius, Amhoin, vol. v. p. 397, t. 144. 



^ Piddington, Index, at the word Cucurbita lagenaria; Ad. Pictet, 

 Origines Indo-Furoip., edit. 3, vol. i. p. 386. 

 ^ Seemann, Flora Vitiensis, p. 106. 



