246 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



the species cultivated and naturalized in the Fiji Isles. 

 Thozet gathered it on the coast of Queensland,^ but it 

 had perhaps spread from neighbouring cultivation. The 

 localities in continental India seem more certain and 

 more numerous than those of the islands to the south of 

 Asia. 



The species has also been found wild in Abyssinia, in 

 the valley of Hieha by Dillon, and in the bush and stony 

 ground of another district by Schimper.^ 



From these two regions of the old world it has been 

 introduced into the gardens of all tropical countries and 

 of those temperate ones where there is a sufficiently high 

 temperature in summer. It has occasionally become 

 naturalized from cultivation, as is seen in America.^ 



The earliest Chinese work which mentioned the gourd 

 is that of Tchong-tchi-chou, of the first century before 

 Christ, quoted in a work of the fifth or sixth century 

 according to Bretschneider.* He is speaking here of 

 cultivated plants. The modem varieties of the gardens 

 at Pekin are the trumpet gourd, which is eatable, and 

 the bottle gourd. 



Greek authors do not mention the plant, but Romans 

 speak of it from the beginning of the empire. It is 

 clearly alluded to in the often-quoted lines ^ of the tenth 

 book of Columella. After describing the different forms 

 of the fruit, he says — 



" Dabit ilia capacem, 

 Nariciae picis, aut Actaei mellis Hymetti, 

 Aut habilem lymphis hamulam, Bacchove lagenatn, 

 Turn pueros eadem fluviis innare docebit." 



Pliny ^ speaks of a Cucurhitacea, of which vessels and 



' Bentham, Flora Australiensis, iii. p. 316. 



^ Described first under the name Lagenaria idolatrica. A. Eichard, 

 Tentamen Ft. Abyss., i. p. 293, and later, Naudin and Cogniaux, recognized 

 its identity with L. vulgaris. 



' Torrey and Gray, Ft. of N. Amer., i. p. 543 ; Grisebach, Flora of 

 Brit. W. Ind. Is., p. 288. 



* Bretschneider, letter of the 23rd of August, 1881. 



* Tragus, Stirp., p. 285; Ruellins, De Natura Stirpium, p. 498; Nan. 

 din, ihid. 



« Pliny, Ei8t, Plant, 1. 19, c. 5. 



