“Dabit illa capacem, Nariciæ picis, aut Actæi mellis Hymetti, Aut habilem lymphis hamulam, Bacchove lagenam, Tum pueros eadem fluviis innare docebit.” Pliny[1233] speaks of a _Cucurbitacea_, of which vessels and flasks for wine were made, which can only apply to this species. It does not appear that the Arabs were early acquainted with it, for Ibn Alawâm and Ibn Baithar say nothing of it.[1234] Commentators of Hebrew works attribute no name to this species with certainty, and yet the climate of Palestine is such as to popularize the use of gourds had they been known. From this it seems to me doubtful that the ancient Egyptians possessed this plant, in spite of a single figure of leaves observed on a tomb which has been sometimes identified with it.[1235] Alexander Braun, Ascherson, and Magnus, in their learned paper on the Egyptian remains of plants in the Berlin Museum,[1236] indicate several Cucurbitaceæ without mentioning this one. The earliest modern travellers, such as Rauwolf,[1237] in 1574, saw it in the gardens of Syria, and the so-called pilgrim’s gourd, figured in 1539 by Brunfels, was probably known in the Holy Land from the Middle Ages. All the botanists of the sixteenth century give illustrations of this species, which was more generally cultivated in Europe at that time than it is now. The common name in these older writings is _Cameraria_, and three kinds of fruit are distinguished. From the white colour of the flower, which is always mentioned, there can be no doubt of the species. I also note an illustration, certainly a very indifferent one, in which the flower is wanting, but with an exact representation of the fruit of the pilgrim’s gourd, which has the great interest of having appeared before the discovery of America. It is pl. 216 of _Herbarius Pataviæ Impressus_, in 4to, 1485—a rare work.