ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. S37 



Among Johnson's additions to Gerarde's '* Herball," 1636, 

 there is a description of " Macock Yirginiani, sive Pepo Vir- 

 ginianus; the Virginian Macock or Pompion " (pp. 919, 

 921). The description is dated 1621, and signed by John 

 Goodyer. The plant has "great broad shrivelled yellow 

 flowers, like those of the common Pompion." The fruit, " some- 

 what round, not extending in length, but flat like a bowl, but 

 not so big as an ordinary bowl, being seldom four inches broad 

 and three inches long ; of a blackish green color when it is 

 ripe. The substance or eatable part, of a yellowish white 

 color. . . . Seeds like the common Pompion, but smaller." 

 The " small round Indian Pompion," and " the cornered In- 

 dian Pompion " — the latter resembling our common " scol- 

 loped Squash " Q'' Pep ones lati, Broad Melons or Pepons " of 

 Lyte's Dodoens, p. 588) — are described and figured in " John- 

 son's Gerarde," p. 920. 



Beverley's "History of Virginia," 1705, p. 124, mentions 

 the Macocks, " a sort of Melopepones, or lesser sort of Pom- 

 pion or Cashaw," which he identifies with the " Squash or 

 Squonter Squash " of New England. " The Indian name," he 

 says, " is still retained by them." Professor Scheie de Vere 

 (of Virginia) states that it still " survives in its anglicized 

 form of Maycock" (Americanisms, 1871, p. 60). 



The " Cushaw" ("Ecushaw," Hariot) is described by Bev- 

 erley (Hist, of Virg., p. 124) as " a kind of Pumpion, of a blu- 

 ish green color, streaked with white when they are fit for use. 

 They are larger than the Porapions, and have a long narrow 

 neck. . . . The Cushaws and Pompions they lay by, which 

 will keep several months good, after they are gathered " 

 (p. 152). Bartlett, " Diet, of Americanisms," notes the name 

 Cushaw, " sometimes spelled Kershaw," as " Western " for a 

 pumpkin. Beverley's description makes it nearly certain that 

 the variety so named was the (New England) winter " crook- 

 neck " squash — which, five and twenty years ago, might have 

 been seen hanging, by its necklace of flannel " list," in every 

 New England farmer's kitchen, from early harvest time till 

 wanted for Thanksgiving or Christmas pumpkin-pies. 



The Rev. Francis fligginson, who came to New England in 



