246 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



varieties derived from it in the past few years, is 

 that its season is late, and it bears after other 

 melon crops are gone. The ripe fruit is stored 

 for months and keeps well in transportation to 

 eastern markets for the holiday trade. 



In Persia and Turkestan, and all Mediterranean 

 countries, north and south, melons have from the 

 earliest times been a staple article of food for all 

 classes of people. The improvement of the culti- 

 vated varieties has produced far more forms than 

 we know in American gardens and markets. The 

 French horticulturists have led in the work of im- 

 provement, and French gardeners excel in the 

 production of dessert qualities, in hothouses, 

 melon-pits, and in the field. England has too cool 

 a climate for outdoor melon culture, but raises 

 choice varieties to perfection under glass. 



SQUASHES AND PUMPKINS 



Professor Bailey, in his "Lessons with Plants," 

 tells us how to distinguish a pumpkin from a 

 squash at a glance. Look at the stem. Does it 

 flare at the point where it joins the fruit? Is it 

 a ridged and furrowed stem? Then the fruit it 

 bears is a pumpkin. Is the stem soft, spongy, and 

 cylindrical, not enlarged at the junction with the 



