STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 219 



in his plates, 1591, appear figures of a plant which in both leaf and fntit represents fairly- 

 well our variety. These figures are of interest as being the only ones yet found in the 

 ancient botanies which represent a fniit with a swollen, herbaceous stem. The following 

 is the synonymy : 



Pepo oblongus vulgatissimus. Lob. Obs. 365. 1576. 



Pepo oblongus. Lobel /com. 1:641. 1591. 



Tennessee Sweet Potato Pumpkin. 



Nimieiwis series of pumpkins are listed in the catalogs of our seedsmen and some 

 of a form qiiite distinct from those here noticed but not as yet sufficiently studied to be 

 classified. However, much may yet be learned through the examination of complete 

 sets of varieties within each of the three described species of cucurbita which furnish 

 fruits for consimiption. Notwithstanding the ready crossings which are so apt to occur 

 within the ascribed species, there yet seems to exist a permanency of types which is simply 

 marvellous, and which would seem to lend countenance to the belief that there is need of 

 revision of the species and a closer study of the various groups or types which appear to 

 have remained constant during centimes of cultivation. 



If we consider the stability of types and the record of variations that appear in cul- 

 tivated plants, and the additional fact that, so far as determined, the originals of cultivated 

 types have their prototype in nature and are not the products of culture, it seems reason- 

 able to suppose that the record of the appearance of types will throw light upon the 

 cotmtry of their origin. From this standpoint, we may, hence, conclude that, as the 

 present types have all been recorded in the Old World since the fifteenth century and 

 were not recorded before the fourteenth, there must be a connection between the time of 

 the discovery of Am.erica and the time of the appearance of pumpkins and squashes in 

 Europe. 



The Gourd. 



The word, gourd, is believed to be derived from the Latin cucurbita, but it takes on 

 various forms in the various European langtiages. It is spelled " gowrde " by Turner, 

 1538; "gourde" by Lobel, 1576; and "gourd" by Lyte, 1586. In France, it is given 

 as courgen and cohurden by RuelUus, 1536, but appears in its present form, courge, in 

 Pinaeus, 1561. Dalechamp used coucourde, 1587, a name which now appears as cougourde 

 in Vilmorin. The Belgian name appears as cauwoord in Lyte, 1586; and the Spanish name, 

 calabassa, with a slight change of spelling, has remained constant from 1561 to 1864, as 

 has the zucca of the Italians and the kurbs of the Germans. 



The gourd belonging to Lagenaria vulgaris is but rarely cultivated in the United 

 States except as an ornamental plant and as such shares a place with the small, hard- 

 shelled cucurbita which are known as fancy gourds. In some localities, however, under 

 the name of Sugar Trough gourd, a lagenaria is gro\vn for the use of the shell of the fruit 

 as a pail. What is worthy of note is the fact that this' type of fruit does not 

 appear in the drawings of the botanists of the early period, nor in the seed catalogs of 

 Europe at the present time. In the Tupi Dictionary of Father Ruiz de Montaga,' 1639, 



' Gray & Trumbull Amer. Journ. Set. 372. 1883. 



