Article

In the Mediterranean area to-day, live and are cultivated species of the cucurbitaceae from ali around the world. Those are Citrullus, Lagenaria, Cucumis, Ecballium, Luffa, Coccinia, Cora//ocarpus, Momordica, Bryonia, Bryonopsis, Cucurbita, Sechium. Some of them are now subspontaneous. First we try to deterrnine their precise origin, the way and by whom they have been diffused, what they are used for and, in the case offood plant, how the mediterranean gardeners diversified them, giving them different names. Some of them were problematic, such as the courgette, which is a very recent variety of the american Cucurbita pepo, some stili are areai problem of deterrnination with the case of faqqiìs, a polisemic word of babylonian origino