728 The American Naturalist. [August, 
word squash, saying, “ There are lesser sorts of them [pompeons] 
that are lately brought into request that are called sguashes, the 
edible fruit whereof, boyl'd and serv'd up with powdered beef, is 
esteemed a good sawce," and Kalm"* in his Travels says distinctly 
that * The squashes of the Indians, which now are cultivated by 
Europeans, belong to those kind of gourds which ripen before 
any other." These squashes of Néw England were apparently 
called sitroules by Champlain” in 1605, who describes them “ as 
big as the fist" Lahontan™ in 1703 calls the squashes of 
southern Canada citrouilles, and compares with the melon, which 
indicates a round form. 
These “squashes,” now nearly abandoned in culture, would 
seem to be synonymous, in some of their varieties at least, with 
the macock of Virginia and the Virginian watermelon described 
in Gerarde's Herbal” as early as 1621. 
The Perfect Gem Squash, introduced in 1881, seems to belong 
to this class, and is very correctly figured by Tragus in 1552,? 
who says they are called Mala indica, or in German /ndianisch 
opf/el, and occur of four colors, saffron yellow, creamy white, 
orange, and black. He also gives the name Summer opffel, which 
indicates an early squash, and the names succo de Syria and zucco 
de Peru, which indicate a foreign origin. To identify this 
claimed recent introduction as synonymous with Tragus’ Cucumis, 
seu Zucco marinus may seem rather improbable. The Perfect 
. Gem and Tragus plant have the following points in common: 
Fruit of like form and size; so also the leaf, if the proportions 
between leaf and fruit as figured may be trusted; seed sweet in 
both ; rn alike, * Quae candida foris and quae ex pallido lutea 
sunt poma." The plants are runners in both. Compare also 
with the description of the Maycock, and it appears to be the 
same in all but color. A curious instance of survival seems to 
be here noted, or else the ine of a lost form through atavism. 
™ Kalm. Trav., 1748, L., 
5$ Champlain. Voyages. Price Coll., pp. 64, 75. 
76 Lahontan. Nouv. Voy., II. 
7 Gerarde. Herb., 1633, pp. > odi 
Tragus. De Stirpium, 1552, 835. 
