THE CUCURBITACE/E OF TROPICAL POLYNESIA. 49 
Pritchard ; Vitiense, “ Vago," teste Seemann.— Tahiti. (Banks and 
Solander ! in Mus. Brit. .. Viti (Seemann! n. 495), Java (Horsfield ! 
in Mus. Brit.), Easter Island (Forster /), Sandwich Islands (See- 
mann !). ` 
The Bottle-gourd is one of the Cucurbiéacee, found cultivated in 
the different Polynesian Islands, where they were first discovered by 
Europeaus. 
8. Cucumis acidus, Jacq. Obser. Bot. parsiv. p. 14 (1764).—Cucu- 
mis pubescens, Willd. Spec. iv. p. 614 (1805); De Cand. Prodr. iii. 
p. 801; Wight, Icon. t. 496. Cucumis Maderaspatanus, Roxb. Fl. 
Ind. ii. p. 123, non alior. Cucurbita aspera, Sol. ms. in Fo-st. Prodr. 
n. 555 (1786), e¢ in Parkinson's Drawings of Tahitian Plants, ined. 
t. 110; Sol. Prim. Fl. Ins. Pacif. p. 336. Nomen vernaculum Tahi- 
tense, ** E-atu” vel ** Ea-ea," teste Solander; Vitiense, ** Timo."— 
Tahiti (Banks and Solander ! in Mus. Brit.), Viti (Seemann ! n. 194), 
Java (Horsfield ! in Mus. Brit.), East Indies (Roxburgh / in Mus. Brit.), 
Ceylon (Thwaites ! in Mus. Brit.), Cape de Verd Islands (fide 4. 
Gray), Kuka, Central Africa (Edward Fogel! n. 59, in Mus. Brit.). 
i An authentic specimen of Cucumis acidus, in the British Museum, with 
Jacquin’s manuscript note :—“ Nova certe species, nata in Horto Bot. 
Vind. anno 1762 e seminibus Indicis sine nomine a Gronovio ac- 
ceptis. Fructus interne ubi Cucumis, sed acidissimus, figura obovata 
glabra," has enabled me to identify C. acidus and C. pubescens, and to 
vindieate the priority of the former name, a name evidently overlooked 
by all writers on Cucurbitacee. A. Gray has attempted to establish 
two varieties of this. species, distinguished by the shape and the gla- 
brous or pubescent state of the surface of the fruit, but the characters 
assigned do not seem to hold good. . Parkinson's figure of the fruit 
exactly corresponds with the shape assigned to it by Jacquin, but it is 
pubescent. In Wight’s plate one of the fruits is ovate, the other 
almost elliptical. The tendrils are always simple. Forster’s Cucumis 
bicirrha which A. Gray hesitatingly refers to this. plant, is identical 
with Lagenaria vulgaris, in the young specimens of which the tendrils 
are often dichotomous. 
«9. Cucumis sativus, Linn. Spec. 1437.—Cultivated in the Sandwich 
(Seemann /), Society (Cuzent, Lay, and Collie), and Vitian Islands 
(Seemann /), but introduced by Europeans. : | 
10. Cucumis Melo, Linn. Spec. 1436.— Cultivated in the Society 
VOL. I1. [FEBRUARY 1, 1864.] E 
