PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 273 



indigenous there, but it was probably cultivated. Dr. 

 Bretschneider ^ tells us that the Chinese name, manhua, 

 means " cucumber of the southern barbarians." Its home 

 must be India, or the Indian Archipelago. No author, 

 however, asserts that it has been found in a distinctly 

 wild state. Thus Clarke, in Hooker's Flora of British 

 India, ii. p. 610, says only, " India, cultivated." Naudin,^ 

 before him, said, " Inhabits the East Indies, where it is 

 much cultivated for its fruits. It is rarely found wild." 

 Rumphius ^ is not more positive for Amboyna. Loureiro 

 and Kurz in Cochin-China and Burmah, Blume and 

 Miquel in the islands to the south of Asia, have only seen 

 the plant cultivated. The thirty-nine other species of 

 the genus are aU of the old world, found between China 

 or Japan, the west of India and Australia. They belong 

 especially to India and the Malay Archipelago. I 

 consider the Indian origin as the most probable one. 



The species has been introduced into Mauritius, where 

 it sows itself round cultivated places. Elsewhere it is 

 little diffused. No Sanskrit name is known. 



Chayote, or Choco — Sechmni edule, Swartz. 



This plant, of the order Cucurhitacece, is cultivated 

 in tropical America for its fruits, shaped like a pear, and 

 tasting like a cucumber. They contain only one seed, so 

 that the flesh is abundant. 



The species alone constitutes the genus Sechium. 

 There are specimens in every herbarium, but generally 

 collectors do not indicate whether they are naturalized, 

 or really Avild, and apparently indigenous in the country. 

 Without speaking of works in which this plant is said to 

 come from the East Indies, which is entirely a mistake, 

 several of the best give Jamaica * as the original home. 

 However, P. Browne,^ in the middle of the last century, 

 said positively that it was cultivated there, and Sloane 

 does not mention it. Jacquin^ says that it "inhabits 



1 Bretschneider, Studij and Value, etc., p. 17. 



2 Naudin, Ann. Sc. Nat., 4th series, vol. xviii. p. 190. 

 2 Rumphius, Amhoin, v. pi. 148. 



* Grisebach, Flora of Brit. W. India Isl., p. 286. 



^ Browne, Jamaica, p. 355. 



® Jacquin, Stirp. Amer. Hist., p. 259. 



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