104 LUTHER BURBANK 



The banana melon has been improved by se- 

 lection until in some varieties it is a fairly good 

 melon, although generally lacking the high flavor 

 of the cantaloupe, the Persian types, and other 

 specialized muskmelons. Some varieties of these 

 so-called snake cucumbers attain a length of 

 three or four feet, and coil up in such a way as to 

 resemble a serpent, justifying their name. 



A type of melon introduced from Syria and 

 known as the Cassaba has interest because it 

 often keeps well until midwinter. Cassabas are 

 longish oval muskmelons, often with red and 

 green stripes. Their chief demerit is their gen- 

 erally variable quality, some specimens being 

 of delicious flavor and others distinctly inferior. 

 Some have also the further fault of cracking 

 seriously, but these faults have now been over- 

 come to a very large extent by selection. 



In working with these varieties during the 

 past few years, I have succeeded in largely elim- 

 inating its faults, and in so doing have produced 

 new types. This work has been entirely along 

 the line of selection, through the knowledge of 

 the danger of producing too great variation by 

 hybridizing the members of this family and the 

 almost impossibility of fixing any variation. 

 Most forms have originated by hybridization at 

 no remote time in the past, and it is far better to 



