20 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
and practically their only advantage was their keeping qual-. 
ity. For this reason they have been a favorite variety in 
Spain and southern France, where they are grown for the 
Scandinavian, Russian, and other northern markets. The 
Casaba melon, also spelled Kassaba, Cassaba, Cassabad, and 
Casba, was named for the town of Kassaba, some twenty miles 
from Smyrna. About 1878 seed were sent to California by 
travelers who had tasted the melons in the hotels of Smyrna. 
From this beginning hundreds of acres of this variety are 
now grown each year, principally in the San Fernando Val- 
ley of southern California. They come into the market after 
the ordinary cantaloup has disappeared and are frequently 
shipped as late as December or January. The Honey Dew 
melon is an old south-of-France variety and it is listed by 
the French seedsmen under the name of White Antibes Win- 
ter Melon. At the present time it is most extensively grown 
in California. The winter melons are characterized by their 
lack of odor and greenish or pale pink, rather than reddish 
orange, flesh. 
(5) Serpent Melons (Melons-Serpents).—This is the variety 
which is frequently sold under the name of Snake Cucumber 
and is used exclusively in the making of preserves. The older 
botanists regarded it as a distinct species, but it was later 
shown that it is merely one of the numerous varieties of 
Cucumis Melo. This variety should not be confused with a 
fruit sometimes sold under the name of Snake Cucumber, 
which is a true gourd and possesses a smooth hard shell. 
(6) Cucumber-formed Melon (Le Melon Cucumeriforme de 
l’Inde).—This group contains fruits variously mottled or col- 
ored, resembling the cucumber in general shape. The flavor 
is acid, and this type of melon is seldom cultivated. 
(7) Chito Melon (Le Melon Chito).—The first record of this 
fruit appeared in 1851 in Belgium and Germany. It is then 
recorded as having come from Cuba and South America, but 
Naudin questions whether it is not identical with melons from 
Asia which had been described by earlier botanists. It might 
very easily have reached America by means of the Spanish 
and Portugese navigators. It is grown in this country more 
as a curiosity than anything else, and appears in seed cata- 
logues under a variety of names, such as Mangal melon, vege- 
table orange, garden lemon, etc. The fruit is about the size, 
shape, and color of an orange, the flesh being pale yellow or 
