202 STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



Piso ' also described it as a wild plant of Brazil under the name guarervaoba or cucumer 

 asinius and gives a figure. It has also been found in the Antilles ard in continental tropical 

 arid subtropical America, New Granada and South Florida.* It is not mentioned as culti- 

 vated in Jamaica by Sloane,' 1696. Its fruit is mentioned as being used in soups and 

 pickles, apparently gathered from the wild plant, by Long,* 1774, Titford,^ 1812, and 

 Lunan,' 1814. It is, however, cultivated in French Gtiiana and Antiqua.' Although 

 described by Ray,* 1686 and 1704, and grown by Miller in his botanic garden in 1755, 

 it yet does not appear to be in the vegetable gardens of England in 1807,' although it 

 was known in the gardens of the United States '" in 1806. In France, it was under 

 cultivation in 1824 and 1829 " but apparently was abandoned and was reintroduced by 

 Vihnorin in 1858." 



C. longipes Hook. f. 



The fruit tastes like a cucumber." 



C. melo Linn, cantaloupe, melon, muskmelon. 



Old World tropics. Naudin " divides the varieties of melon into ten sections, which 

 differ not only in their fruits but also in their leaves and their entire habit or mode of growth. 

 Some melons are no larger than small plums, others weigh as much as 66 pounds; one 

 variety has a scarlet fruit ; another is only one inch in diameter but three feet long and is 

 coiled in a serpentine manner in all directions. The fruit of one variety can scarcely be 

 distinguished from cucimibers; ope Algerian variety suddenly splits up into sections when 

 ripe. The melons of our gardens may be divided into two sections: those with green 

 flesh, as the citron and nutmeg; those with yellow flesh, as the Christiana, cantaloupe 

 and Persian melons, with very thin skins and melting honey-like flesh of delicious flavor. 

 In England, melons with red, green, and white flesh are cultivated. 



By the earUer and unscientific travellers, the term melon has been used to signify 

 watermelons, the Macock gourd of Virginia, and it has even been applied to pumpkins by 

 our early horticulturists. The names used by the ancient writers and translated by some 

 to mean melon, seem also in doubt. Thus, according to Fraas,'^ the sikua of Theophrastus'* 



' Piso Hist. Rerum Nat. Bras. 264. 1648. 



' Naudin Ann. Sci. Nat. 8, 12. No year. 



' Sloane, H. Co/. 103. 1696. 



* Long Hist. Jam. 801. 1774. 



Titford, W. J. Hort. Bot. Amer. 100. 1812. 



' Lunan, J. Hort. Jam. 1:2^^. 1814. 



' De CandoUe, A. & C. Monog. 3 : 50 1 . 1 88 1 . 



8 Ray Hist. PI. 1686; Suppl. 333. 1704. 



Miller Card. Diet. 1807. 

 "McMahon, B. Amer. Card. Cat. 581. 1806. 

 " Pirolle L'Hort. Franc. 1824. 

 " Naudin Ann. Sci. Nat. 8, 12. 

 " Oliver Fl. Trap. Afr. 2 : 547. 1 87 1 . 

 " Sachs Bo/. 925. 1882. 

 ' De CandoUe, A. Geog. Bot. 2:905. 1855. 

 " Ibid. \ 



