The plant was long supposed to be of Indian origin, because of such names as Indian gourd, given by sixteenth-century botanists, and in particular the _Pepo maximus indicus_, figured by Lobel,[1255] which answers to the modern species; but this is a very insufficient proof, since popular indications of origin are very often erroneous. The fact is that though pumpkins are cultivated in Southern Asia, as in other parts of the tropics, the plant has not been found wild.[1256] No similar species is indicated by ancient Chinese authors, and the modern names of gourds and pumpkins now grown in China are of foreign and southern origin.[1257] It is impossible to know to what species the Sanskrit name _kurkarou_ belonged, although Roxburgh attributes it to _Cucurbita Pepo_; and there is no less uncertainty with respect to the gourds, pumpkins, and melons cultivated by the Greeks and Romans. It is not certain if the species was known to the ancient Egyptians, but perhaps it was cultivated in that country and in the Græco-Roman world. The _Pepones_, of which Charlemagne commanded the cultivation in his farms,[1258] were perhaps some kind of pumpkin or marrow, but no figure or description of these plants which may be clearly recognized exists earlier than the sixteenth century. This tends to show its American origin. Its existence in Africa in a wild state is certainly an argument to the contrary, for the species of the family of _Cucurbitaceæ_ are very local; but there are arguments in favour of America, and I must examine them with the more care since I have been reproached in the United States for not having given them sufficient weight. In the first place, out of the ten known species of the genus _Cucurbita_, six are certainly wild in America (Mexico and California); but these are perennial species, while the cultivated pumpkins are annuals.