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.[1220] The most remarkable are the _pilgrim’s gourd_, in the form of a bottle, the _long-necked gourd_, the _trumpet 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. Linnæus[1221] pronounced the species to be American. De Candolle[1222] 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.[1223] Roxburgh[1224] considered it to be wild in India, although subsequent floras give it only as a cultivated species. Lastly, Rumphius[1225] 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 forms. The Sanskrit language already distinguished the common gourd, _ulavou_, and another, bitter, _kutou-toumbi_, to which Pictet also attributes the name _tiktaka_ or _tiktika_.[1226] Seemann[1227] saw the species cultivated and naturalized in the Fiji Isles. Thozet gathered it on the coast of Queensland,[1228] but it had perhaps spread from neighbouring cultivation. The localities in continental India seem more certain and more numerous than those of the islands to the south of Asia. The species has also been found wild in Abyssinia, in the valley of Hieha by Dillon, and in the bush and stony ground of another district by Schimper.[1229] From these two regions of the old world it has been introduced into the gardens of all tropical countries and of those temperate ones where there is a sufficiently high temperature in summer. It has occasionally become naturalized from cultivation, as is seen in America.[1230] The earliest Chinese work which mentioned the gourd is that of Tchong-tchi-chou, of the first century before Christ, quoted in a work of the fifth or sixth century according to Bretschneider.[1231] He is speaking here of cultivated plants. The modern varieties of the gardens at Pekin are the trumpet gourd, which is eatable, and the bottle gourd. Greek authors do not mention the plant, but Romans speak of it from the beginning of the empire. It is clearly alluded to in the often-quoted lines[1232] of the tenth book of Columella. After describing the different forms of the fruit, he says—