744 The American Naturalist. [August, 
dynasty, or 2200 to 2400 years B.C., and they are described by 
theancient writers. That the gourd reached America at an early 
period, perhaps preceding the discovery, ^ we cannot doubt, for 
Marcgravius notes a cuCurbit with a white flower, and of lagen- 
arian form, in Brazil in 1648; but there is not sufficient evi- 
dence, so it seems to us, to establish its appearance in America 
before brought by the colonists. What the calabazas were which 
served for water-vessels, and were apparently of considerable 
size, we can at present but surmise. It is possible that there are 
varieties of Cucurbita pepo not yet introduced to notice that would 
answer the conditions, It is also less possible that gourd-shaped 
clay vessels might have been used, and thus recorded by not 
over-careful narrators aS gourds. In 1595, Mendana, on his 
voyage to the Solomon Islands, saw “Spanish pumpkins "^" at 
the islands of Dominica and Santa Cruz, or according to another 
translation, * pumpkins of Castille.’ It would seem by this 
reference that, whether the “calabaza ” of the original Spanish 
referred to gourds or pumpkins, it did not take many years for 
this noticeable class of fruits to receive a wide distribution, and 
it might further imply that Mendana, setting forth from the 
western coast of America, discriminated between the American 
pumpkin, or pumpkin proper, and the Spanish pumpkin or 
gourd. 
188 Schweinfurth. Nature, = a 1883, 314. 
149 Fruits of the lagenaria are at present carried to the coast of Iceland by ocean 
; ^u» PR. Hist. Nat. Bras., 1648, + 
151 Mendana. Dalyrmple, Voy., L., 72, 88. 
152 De Morga. Phillipine Is., Hat, Soc., Ed. 68, 70. 
