ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 331 



Lery (Hist. Navig. in Brasil., 154) describes the tree under 

 the Brazilian name of " Choyne " ; but elsewhere (p. 246) 

 he says "the natives have Cucurhitce (courges) and other 

 kinds of fruits," from which "they make their bowls, called 

 ' coui,' and other vessels." 



It is certain that "calaba^as," which were not arboreal, 

 but genuine cucurbits, were abundant — and were believed to 

 grow spontaneously — in the islands and on the main land, 

 before 1526. Oviedo (Historia, lib. vii. c. 8) observes that 

 " calaba^as, in the Indias, were as common as in Spain, and 

 of the same kinds (delas mismas), long and round, or banded 

 (reiiidas), and of all the shapes they usually have [in Spain]." 

 They were much used " in all parts of these Indias, both the 

 Islands and the Main," and "are one of the common things 

 that the Indians cultivate in their gardens." They were not 

 cultivated for food — " for they do not eat them " — but for 

 carrying water ; " and they have other calabacas that are 

 in all respects like the aforesaid, except that they are bitter 

 to the taste ; and there are many of these that grow of them- 

 selves without cultivation," ^ The same author (lib. xi., e. 1), 

 in a list of plants introduced from Spain, names Melons and 

 Cucumbers (pepinos), but not Gourds. 



The relation of the voyage of Amerigo Vespucci, 1489, in 

 a description of the Indians of Trinidad and the coast of 

 Paria, says that " each carried, hanging at his neck, two 

 small dried gourds (cucurhitas) ., one containing the plant 

 that they were accustomed to chew, the other, a certain 

 wdiitish flour," etc., and that each woman carried a " cucur- 

 bita" of water (Navarrete, iii. 252, 254). 



The " Cucurbita lagenaB forma," w^hich Marcgrav found 

 in Brazil, 1637-8 (Hist. Nat. Brasilise, 44), though "very 

 probably Lagenaria vulgaris,^^ yet, as M. De Candolle ob- 

 serves, " does not prove that the species was in that country 

 before the voyage of Amerigo Vespucci in 1504 ; " but we 



^ M. De Candolle, p. 198, citing this passage from Ramusio's Italian 

 translation of Oviedo's *' Historia," has " zucehe " for " calabacas " of the 

 Spanish original, and takes no notice of what is said of their spontaneous 

 growth. 



