PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 247' 



flasks for wine were made, which can only apply to this 

 species. 



It does not appear that the Arabs were early ac- 

 quainted with it, for Ibn Alawam and Ibn Baithar say 

 nothing of it.^ Commentators of Hebrew works attri-, 

 bute no name to this species with certainty, and yet the 

 climate of Palestine is such as to popularize the use of 

 gourds had they been known. From this it seems to me 

 doubtful that the ancient Egyptians possessed this plant, 

 in spite of a single figure of leaves observed on a tomb 

 which has been sometimes identified with it.^ Alexander 

 Braun, Ascherson, and Magnus, in their learned paper on 

 the Egyptian remains of plants in the Berlin Museum,^ 

 indicate several Cucurbitacese without mentioning this 

 one. The earliest modern travellers, such as Rauwolf,^ 

 in 1574, saw it in the gardens of Syria, and the so-called 

 pilgrim's gourd, figured hi 1539 by Brunfels, was probably 

 known in the Holy Land from the Middle Ages. 



All the botanists of the sixteenth century give illus- 

 trations of this species, which was more generally culti- 

 vated in Europe at that time than it is now. The common 

 name in these older writings is Cameraria, and three 

 kinds of fruit are distinguished. From the white colour 

 of the flower, which is always mentioned, there can be no 

 doubt of the species. I also note an illustration, certainly 

 a very indifferent one, in which the flower is wanting, 

 but with an exact representation of the fruit of the 

 pilgrim's gourd, which has the great interest of having 

 appeared before the discovery of America. It is pi. 216 

 of Herharius Patavice Impressus, in 4to, 1485 — a rare 

 work. 



In spite of the use of similar names by some authors, 

 I do not believe that the gourd existed in America be- 

 fore the arrival of the Europeans. The Taquera of Piso ^ 



^ Ibn Alawam, in E. Meyer, Geschichte der Botanih, iii. p. 60 ; Ibn 

 Baithar, Sondtheimer's translation. 



^ Unger, Pflanzen des Alien Mgyiptens, p. 59; Pickering, Chronol. 

 Arrang., p. 137. 



3 In 8vo, 1877, p. 17. 4 Rauwolf, Fl. Orient., p. 125. 



^ Piso, Indice Utriusque., etc., edit. 1658, p. 264. 



