of Western Afghanistan and North-Eastern Persia. 49 



the season is endiuo- and nio'ht frosts have set in, and the 

 plants are beginning to be nipped, the gardeners carefully 

 cover the fruit to prevent it from being injured by the frosts, 

 and then collect it when not quite ripe ; these fruits ripen 

 very slowly, will keep through the whole winter, and in 

 flavour seem to improve the longer they are kept. It is this 

 treatment, I believe, that constitutes the difference between 

 the ordinary melon and the sardd, and why gardeners out of 

 Afghanistan and Persia have not been able to produce the 

 fine-flavoured Peshawur trade article, and which even in the 

 old caravan, now railway, days were carried in perfection to 

 Southern India. It is curious that another melon, an early 

 ripening one, receives a very opposite name, viz., garma, and 

 which has come also to mean first fruits — garma, meaning 

 heat. 



The flesh of the melon, after the rind is removed, is dried, 

 when it is called kdk ; this is much eaten by the natives 

 cooked along with other food, and is to be seen hanging up 

 for sale in all bazaars. " An oil, roghan-i-tukhm, is extracted 

 from the seeds, and is looked upon as a delicacy. 



Cucumis sativus, Linn. CucuRBiTACEiE. 



The Cucumber, Jchldr, turi (?), is cultivated in all gardens, 

 the fruit being eaten much raw, as we would an apple ; it is 

 a delicious fruit thus eaten on a hot day. The seeds, hab-i- 

 khidr, tukhm-i-turl (?), are employed whole in native medicine. 



Cucumis trigonus, Roxb. (?). CucuRBixACEiE. 



This is supposed by some to be the wild form of Cucumis 

 ]\Ielo. The fruit is not much larger than a large plum, but 

 has a most deHcious aroma when almost ripe. It w^as in 

 abundance on the low banks of the Helmand. It was eaten 

 raw, and cooked by the camp followers. 



Cucurbita Pepo, DC. (?). Cucurbitace.e. 



The V \\m])km, Ihamhal, is largely cultivated and nnich em- 

 ployed as a vegetable. 



CrLTIVATION 



. Taking our lowest altitude in tliese regions to be 1000 



TRAXS. COT. SOC. VOL. XVUI. G 



