PLANTS OTJLTIVATED FOR THEIR FEUITS. 245 



Gourd,^ or Calabash — Lagenaria vulgaris, Seringe; 

 Cucv/rhita lagenaria, Liimseus. 



The fruit of this Curcubitacea has taken different 

 forms in cultivation, but from a general observation of 

 the other parts of the plant, botanists have ranked them 

 in one Species which comprises several varieties,^ The 

 most remarkable aye the pilgrirfi's gourd, in the form of 

 a bottle, the long-v^Qjced gourd, the ti'umpet gourd, and 

 the calabash, generally large and without a neck. Other 

 less common varieties have a flattened, very small fruit, 

 like the snuff-box gourd. The species may always be 

 recognized by its white flower, and by the hardness of 

 the outer rind of the fruit, which allows of its use as a 

 vessel for liquids, or a reservoir of air suitable as a buoy 

 for novices in swimming. The flesh is sometimes sweet 

 and eatable, sometimes bitter and even purgative. 



Linnaeus* pronounced the species to be American. 

 De CandoUe * thought it was probably of Indian origin, 

 and this opinion has since been confirmed. 



Lagenaria vulgaris has been found wild on the 

 coast of Malabar and in the humid forests of Deyra Doon.^ 

 Roxburgh ® considered it to be wild in India, although 

 subsequent floras give it only as a cultivated species. 

 Lastly, Eumphius '' mentions wild plants of it on the sea- 

 shore in one of the Moluccas. Authors^ generally note 

 that the pulp is bitter in these wild plants, but this is 

 sometimes the case in cultivated fornis. The Sanskrit 

 language already distinguished the common go\ird,ulavou, 

 and another, bitter, kutou-toumbi, to which. Pictet also 

 attributes the name tiJdaJca or tiktiJca.^ Seemann ' saw 



' The word gourd ia also used in English for Cucurbita maxima. 

 This is one of the examples of the confusion in common names and the 

 greater accuracy of scientific terms. 



' Naudin, Annales des 8c. Nat, 4th series, vol. xii. p. 91 ; Cogniaux, 

 in our Monog. Phanfrog., iii. p. 417. 



• Linnaeus, Species Flanta/rwrn, p. 1434, under Cucurbita. 



• A. P. de CandoUe, Mora Fran^aise (1805), vol. iii. p. 692. 



• Bbeede, Malaha/r, iii. pis. 1, 5 ; Eoyle, III. Himal., p. 218. 

 " Eoxhurgh, M. Ind., edit. 1832, vol. iii. p. 719. 



' Eumphius, Amboin, vol. v. p. 397, t. 144. 



' Piddington, Indem, at the word Cucurbita lagenaria; Ad. Pictet, 

 Origines Indo-Europ,, edit. 3, vol. i. p. 386. 



• Seemann, Flora Titiensis, p. 106. 



