Cogniaux[1270] suspects that it comes from the south of Asia, but he gives no proof of this. I have searched through the floras of the old and new worlds, and I have nowhere been able to discover the mention of the species in a truly wild state. The indications which approach most nearly to it are: (1) In Asia, in the island of Bangka, a specimen verified by Cogniaux, and which Miquel[1271] says is not cultivated; (2) in Africa, in Angola, specimens which Welwitsch says are quite wild, but “probably due to an introduction;” (3) in America, five specimens from Brazil, Guiana, or Nicaragua, mentioned by Cogniaux, without knowing whether they were cultivated, naturalized, or indigenous. These indications are very slight. Rumphius, Blume, Clarke (_Flora of British India_) in Asia, Schweinfurth (Oliver’s _Flora of Trop. Africa_) in Africa, only know it as a cultivated plant. Its cultivation is recent in China,[1272] and American floras rarely mention the species. No Sanskrit name is known, and the Indian, Malay, and Chinese names are neither very numerous nor very original, although the cultivation of the plant seems to be more diffused in Southern Asia than in other parts of the tropics. It was already grown in the seventeenth century according to the _Hortus Malabaricus_, in which there is a good plate (vol. viii. pl. 2). It does not appear that this species was known in the sixteenth century, for Dalechamp’s illustration (_Hist._, i. p. 616) which Seringe attributed to it has not its true characters, and I can find no other figure which resembles it. +Fig-leaved Pumpkin+—_Cucurbita ficifolia_, Bouché; _Cucurbita melanosperma_, Braun. About thirty years ago this pumpkin with black or brown seeds was introduced into gardens. It differs from other cultivated species in being perennial. It is sometimes called the _Siamese melon_. The _Bon Jardinier_ says that it comes from China. Dr. Bretschneider does not mention it in his letter of 1881, in which he enumerates the pumpkins grown by the Chinese. Hitherto no botanist has found it wild. I very much doubt its Asiatic origin as all the known perennial species of _Cucurbita_ are from Mexico or California. +Melon+—_Cucumis Melo_, Linnæus.