NAUDIN ON THE GENUS CUCURBIT A. 85 



terent des petites citrouilles de la grosseur du poing, que nous 

 mangeasmes en sallade comme coucombres, qui sont tres- 

 bonnes " (p. 77). 



See also j^p. 83, 115, 116. Of course it does not follow 

 that these esculents were natives of New England, any more 

 than maize ; but both may probably have been carried north- 

 ward together. Whatever their origin, our Indians were 

 found cultivating them together at this early date as well as 

 in later times. According to Nuttall, the Indians along the 

 whole Upper Missouri half a century ago were cultivating 

 Ciicurhita verrucosa. This common squash is, according to 

 Naudin, a variety of C. Pepo^ as also is C. aurantia (the 

 C. Texana vel ovifera., Gray, "PI. Lindheimerianse"), which 

 has every appearance of being indigenous in the western part 

 of Texas, on the Rio Colorado and its upper tributaries. At 

 least, this is the opinion of Mr. Lindheimer and of Mr. Charles 

 Wright, two good judges. The latter personally informs us 

 that, from the stations and localities in which alone it is met 

 with, he could not suspect it to be other than an indigenous 

 plant. 



That the later Greeks and Eomans possessed the bottle 

 gourd or Lagenaria, and also some kind of summer squash, 

 seems pretty clear ; but we see no decisive reason for the 

 opinion that they had any form of Cucarhita Pepo^ as that 

 species is now understood. According to De CandoUe, the 

 earliest figures referable to this species are, one of C ovifera 

 by Lobel in 1576, and one of C. verrucosa by Dalechamp in 

 1587, namely, about a century after the discovery of America, 

 and long after maize had become well known in the south of 

 Europe ; and we have seen that some forms probably of this 

 very species (undoubtedly originating in a warmer region) 

 had by this time found their way in this country nearly as 

 far north as the climate will permit of their cultivation. So 

 that there appears to be about the same evidence for the 

 American origin of some squashes and of pumpkins that there 

 is for the American origin of maize. 



A remaining argument brought by De Candolle against 

 this view may also be turned the other way, namely, that no 



