Botany and Zoology, 441 



forms, collected for the purpose, and cultivated under the author's eye at 

 the Jardin des Plantes. These forms our author reduces to six species, and 

 the alimentary sorts in cultivation, to three, viz. Caciirbita maxhna^ C, 

 Pepo^ and (7. mosckafa. The remaining three species are C. melanosperma 

 of Braun, newly introduced from Eastern Asia, and the two perennial 

 and tuberous-rooted species, C, perennis and C, dif/itata^ Gray, natives of 

 our soutlnvestern borders, the fruits of which are not esculent. Indeed 

 the pumpkins and squashes cultivated in Northern Europe and with us, 

 as now understood, belong to only two species, since the third, O. mos- 

 chata hardly comes to perfection north of the Mediterranean region. Of 

 these (7- maxima is made to include C. Melopepo ; and C. P^po^ comprising 

 our pumpkins and a large part of our squashes, is made to include (X 

 oviferay aurantia^ verrucosa^ &c., and the species are defined by botan- 

 ical characters, which apparently may be relied upon. The varieties of 

 C. ynoxima fall into two main groups, characterized by their fruits, v\z,, 

 the Tarhans^ having croivned fruits^ that is, the summit projecting be- 

 yond the adnate calyx-tube, a peculiarity found in no other species, and 

 the crownless sorts, in which this peculiarity is not manifest. The innu- 

 merable varieties of (7. Pepo are arranged in seven groups, according to 

 the configuration of their fruits. 



M. Naudin has not undertaken to discu&s the questions respecting the 

 birth-place of these plants. He remarks that (7, inaxima and (7. mos- 

 chata have been known in European gardens scarcely above two centu- 

 ries ; but that C. Pepo was perhaps known to the Greeks and the Romans 



iu the time of Pliny. 



The younger DeCandolle, in' his discussion of the history and origin oi 

 the principal cultivated plants, which form a most interesting chapter of 

 his Geographic Botanique^ although he is unable to assign them to any 

 country as their home, confidently (perhaps too confidently) refers all the 

 squashes and pumpkins to the Old World ; but not to India, because they 

 have no Sanscrit name. He will not believe that any of them came from 

 America, and appears to think little of the current statements that squashes 

 or pumpkins were in cultivation by our aborigines before the European 

 settlement of the country. On the other hand, our lamented Dr. Hairis, 



who, during the later years of his life, assiduously studied this question, 

 and who was very cautious in drawing conclusions, — had become satisfied 

 that the North American Indians as far north even as to Canada, cultiva- 

 ted squashes and pumpkins, one or both, along with their maize, before 

 the whites were established here. We are unable at this moment to refer 

 to his manuscripts, or to what he had too imperfectly published upon this 

 subject. But we well remember his laying much stress upon the narra- 

 tive of Cham plain ; and with good reason, as it appears to us on turning 

 casually to the pages of Les Voyages dii Sieur de Charnplain . . . • ou 

 Journal tres-Jideh des Observations faites et Decouvertes de la Nouvelle 

 France, &c. &c., edition of Jean Berjon, Paris, 1G13, 4to. : also Voyafjes 

 €t decouvertes faites en, la Nouvelle France dynis Vannee I6l5,jasques 

 a la Jin de Vannee 1618,— second edition, published by Collet, in 1627, 

 small 12mo, — to which volumes we desire to direct M. DeCaadolle's at- 

 tention. In Champlain's narrative of his own voyage along the coast of 

 what is now the State of Maine, in the year 1604, and the two voyages 



SECOND SEEIESj VOL, XXIV, NO. "2, — ?TOV., 185T. 



56 



