from these pumpkins and used as sugar substitutes. The first pumpkin pies 
were very different preparations from those of to-day. They were made 
by cutting a hole in the side of a pumpkin, extracting the seeds and 
fibrous matter, stuffing the cavity with a mixture of apples, spices, sugar 
and milk, then baking the whole, and this, says an old chronicler, “is 
commonly called pumpkin pie.” Pumpkins are grown in all warm coun- 
tries now, the crop yielding from 8-15 tons per acre, and being much es- 
teemed for fall stock food, Jack o’ Lanterns and Hallowe’en festivities. 
Winter squashes, among which are included some types with fruits 
very much resembling pumpkins in both shape and color, belong to two 
species, Cucurbita moschata and C. maxima, both of which have not been 
definitely allied with wild species. Hence their native country is unknown, 
though the bulk of the evidence points to tropical South America, es- 
pecially the west coast as the home of C. maxima. Some botanists believe 
the other species to be from southeastern Asia, but the presence of an 
allied wild species in Uruguay and perhaps elsewhere in America, makes 
this doubtful. The seeds of both these species have been found in the 
ancient Peruvian tombs of Ancon near Lima. Neither pumpkins nor 
squashes, so far as we can learn, were known or at least common in 
Europe before the discovery of America, but they became plentiful a 
century or so later. The Hubbard, Autumnal Marrow (Boston Marrow), 
Mammoth, and others belong to C. maxima. Some varieties such as Mam- 
moth, Chill, Valparaiso and others were introduced directly from Western 
South America, while the Hubbard, introduced in 1857, was probably 
brought from the West Indies. Some varieties of this species bear the 
largest fruits known, and these are very often called pumpkins. At 
country fairs, specimens are sometimes seen, weighing 200 to 300 or more 
pounds and of sufficient size to literally house “Peter Pumpkin Eater’s 
Wife,” provided she was a small sized woman. 
The old time Winter Crookncck is supposed to be a form of C. 
moschata, and a very similar variety has been obtained from the Seminole 
Indians of Florida who have grown it from time immemorial, supposedly. 
This, if true, is another link in the chain that points to America, and not 
Asia, as the original home of this species, unless this species was intro- 
duced by Asian visitors previous to the white man’s coming. In India, 
the natives grow pumpkins and squashes, as well as various gourds, over 
their houses. 
The cucumber is undoubtedly native to India, where a wild representa- 
tive, C. Hardzvickii Royle, is still quite common. Western Asia and India 
have probably cultivated the cucumber for over 3,000 years, and its intro- 
duction into China took place in the second century B.C., when a Chinese 
ambassador returned from a mission to western Asia. In ancient times, as 
now, immense quantities of this vegetable, as well as various melons, were 
grown in the “near East” — in Syria, Persia, Russian Turkestan, and the 
Caucasus. The Egyptians are also supposed to have known the value 
of this salad vegetable, and in the trek of the Israelites through the 
wilderness, there were many loud complaints about their manna fare, 
mixed with such regretful exclaimations as “We remember the fish which 
we did eat freely, the cucumbers and the melons.” In the ancient Hindu 
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