curbita (380), of which rather a long description is given: Tum modo dependens trichilis, modo more chelydri Aut habilem lymphis hamulam, Bacchove lagenam. From this it appears that there were three kinds of cucurbita; the first, mentioned as hanging down from the arbours, which was either of a tapering or a globular form, according as it was propagated by seed, taken nearest to the neck of the plant, or from its middle. If from the latter, Columella says, we obtain a fruit, which after the interior is scooped out, may serve as a vessel for holding pitch, honey, or even wine, and from which you may construct a bottle for teaching boys to swim. The second sort, which grovels along the ground, is venomous and unwholesome, and contains a fetid juice. The third kind, which, if water is placed near it, creeps towards it from the corner in which it grows, and thus becomes lengthened in an extraordinary manner, is white, but becomes of a golden yellow colour when ripe. This sort is refreshing and salubrious. Now the first of these species of cucumis or cucurbita, (for Columella, it is to be observed, mentions them all under the same name,) would seem to correspond with some species of Lagenaria, or bottle gourd. This indeed is a native of India, but it has been introduced into Europe from a very early period, and was used in times far back by pilgrims, to hold the water they carried on their backs. The lines in Columella above cited, together with the mention made of it in Pliny, lib. xix. c. 5, who says, that from it were constructed "cadi ad vina condenda," make one conclude, with Alphonse Decandolle, that the bottlegourd was known to the ancients, and that it was introduced into America from the old continent. In the second kind, Columella would seem to allude to some poisonous sort, as to the elaterium or squirting cucumber (Momordica), common in the south of Europe; or else to the colocynthis, found more rarely there, and a doubtful native. The drawing however of oikus äypios, in the V. MS. of Dioscorides, of which I have given a lithograph, evidently indicates the former plant, to which the description in Columella sufficiently well corresponds. Nevertheless, an Italian variety of cucumeris, called cocomero serpentino, which tastes, Tenore says, like a melon, has very much the character which is here ascribed to the second kind, mentioned by Columella. The identity of the third kind noticed with the melon, has been maintained by some, but has been questioned by others. Pliny describes a variety of cucumeris or pepo, (for these terms were applied, not to different plants, but to different stages of growth in the same,) to which he gives the name of melopepo. He says, it is of a round form, like the quince, but that instead of hanging from trellis, it trails upon the ground. So far this description answers well with the melon, but some doubt is cast upon his interpretation, by his adding, that it sprung accidentally in Campania, within his own recollection. The only inference, however, I should be disposed to draw from this latter statement is, that the melon was at that time of recent introduction, and known to but few; and this appears to be confirmed by a passage in Plutarch, who states, |