The original country of _Cucumis sativus_ was unknown to Linnæus and Lamarck. In 1805, Wildenow[1303] asserted it was indigenous in Tartary and India, but without furnishing any proof. Later botanists have not confirmed the assertion. When I went into the question in 1855, the species had not been anywhere found wild. For various reasons deduced from its ancient culture in Asia and in Europe, and especially from the existence of a Sanskrit name, _soukasa_,[1304] I said, “Its original habitat is probably the north-west of India, for instance Cabul, or some adjacent country. Everything seems to show that it will one day be discovered in these regions which are as yet but little known.” This conjecture has been realized if we admit, with the best-informed modern authors, that _Cucumis Hardwickii_, Royle, possesses the characteristics of _Cucumis sativus_. A coloured illustration of this cucumber found at the foot of the Himalayas may be seen in Royle’s _Illustrations of Himalayan Plants_, p. 220, pl. 47. The stems, leaves, and flowers are exactly those of _C. sativus_. The fruit, smooth and elliptical, has a bitter taste; but there are similar forms of the cultivated cucumber, and we know that in other species of the same family, the water-melon, for instance, the pulp is sweet or bitter. Sir Joseph Hooker, after describing the remarkable variety which he calls the _Sikkim_ cucumber,[1305] adds that the variety _Hardwickii_, wild from Kumaon to Sikkim, and of which he has gathered specimens, does not differ more from the cultivated plant than certain varieties of the latter differ from others; and Cogniaux, after seeing the plants in the herbarium at Kew, adopts this opinion.[1306]