270 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



of the old world ; often cultivated and half wild in 

 America between the tropics." In consulting the works 

 quoted in these two monographs, and herbaria, its 

 character as a wild plant will be found sometimes 

 conclusively certified. 



With regard to Asia, 1 Rheede saw it in sandy places, 

 in woods and other localities in, Malabar ; Roxburgh says 

 it is wild in Hindustan ; Kurz, in the forests of Burmah ; 

 Thwaites, in Ceylon. I have specimens from Ceylon and 

 Khasia. There is no Sanskrit name known, and Dr. 

 Bretschneider, in his work On the Study and Value of 

 Chinese Botanical Works, and in his letters mentions no 

 luffa either wild or cultivated in China. I suppose, 

 therefore, that its cultivation is not ancient even in 

 India. 



The species is wild in Australia, on the banks of 

 rivers in Queensland, 2 and hence it is probable it will 

 be found wild in the Asiatic Archipelago, where Rum- 

 phius, Miquel, etc., only mention it as a cultivated plant. 



Herbaria contain a great number of specimens from 

 tropical Africa, from Mozambique to the coast of Guinea, 

 and even as far as Angola, but collectors do not appear 

 to have indicated whether they were cultivated or wild 

 plants. In the Delessert herbarium, Heudelot indicates it 

 as growing in fertile ground in the environs of Galam. Sir 

 Joseph Hooker 8 quotes this without affirming anything. 

 Schweinfurth and Ascheron, 4 who are always careful in 

 this matter, say the species is only a cultivated one in 

 the Nile Valley. This is curious, because the plant 

 was seen in the seventeenth century in Egyptian gar- 

 dens under the Arabian name of luff, 5 whence the genus 

 was called Luffa, and the species Luffa cegyptica. The 

 ancient Egyptian monuments show no trace of it The 



1 Kheede, Hort. Malab., viii. p. 15, t. 8 ; Eoxbnrgh. Fl. Ind., iii. p. 714, 

 as L. clavata ; Kurz, Contrib., ii. p. 100; Thwaites, Enum. 



2 Mueller, Fragmenta, iii. p. 107 ; Bentham, FL Austr., iii. p. 317, 

 under names which Naudin and Cogniiux regard as synonyms of 

 L. cylindrica. 



8 Hooker, in Oliver, Fl. of Trop. Afr., ii. p. 530. 

 4 Schweinfurth and Ascheron, Aufzahlvng, p. 268. 

 6 Forskal, Fl. Egypt., p. 75. 



