STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 203 



was the melon. In Liddell and Scott's Lexicon, the definition is given " a fruit like the 

 melon or gourd but eaten ripe." Fraas ^ says the melon is the pepon of Dioscorides.^ 

 The Lexicon says " sikuos pepon, or more frequently o pepon, a kind of gourd or melon 

 not eaten till quite ripe." Fraas' says " the melon is the melopepon of Galen and the 

 melo of Pliny."* Andrews' Latin Lexicon gives under melopepo " an apple-shaped melon, 

 cucumber melon, not eaten till fully ripe." Pliny, on the other hand, says in Greece in 

 his day it was named peponia. In Italy, in 1539, the names of pepone, melone and mellone 

 were applied^to it. In Sardinia, where it is remarked by De CandoUe ^ that Roman traditions 

 are well preserved, it is called meloni. As a summary, we may believe that although 

 " a kind of gourd not eaten until fully ripe " may have been cultivated in ancient Greece 

 and Rome, or even by the Jews under their Kings, as Unger * asserts, yet the admiration 

 of the authors of the sixteenth century for the perftmie and exqmsite taste of the melon, 

 as contrasted with the silence of the Romans, who were not less epicurean, is assuredly 

 a proof that the melon had not at that time, even if known, attained its present luscious 

 and perftmied properties, and it is an indication, as De Candolle ^ observes, " of the novelty 

 of the fruit in Europe." When we consider, moreover, the rapidity of its diffusion through 

 the savage tribes of America to remote regions, we cannot believe that a fruit so easily 

 transported through its seed could have remained secluded during such a long period of 

 history. 



Albertus Magnus,' in the thirteenth century, says, melons, which some call pepones, 

 have the seed and the flower very nearly like those of the cucumber and also says, in 

 speaking of the cucvunber, that the seeds are like those of the pepo. Under the head of 

 watermelon, citrullus, he calls the melon pepo, and says it has a smooth, green skin, but 

 the pepo is commonly yellow and of an uneven surface and as if round, semi-circular 

 sections were orderly arranged together. In 1536, Ruellius ' describes our melon as the 

 pepo; in 1542, Fuchsius ^^ describes the melon, but figtires it under the name of pepo. In 

 1550, Roeszlin '^ figures the melon under the name of pepo, and in 1558 Matthiolus '^ fig. 

 ures it under the name of melon. The Greek name of pepon, and the Italian, German, 

 Spanish and French of melon, variously spelled, are given among synonyms by vari- 

 ous authors '' of the sixteenth century; melones sive pepones are used by Pinaeus," 1561; 



De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:905. 1855. 

 ' Ibid. 



Ibid. 



* Ibid. 



' Ibid. 



' Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 333. 1859. 

 ' De Candolle, A. Geog. Bo/. 2:906. 1855. 

 ' .Albertus Magnus Feg. 501. 1867. Jessen Ed. 

 'Ruellius Nat. Slirp. 503. 1536. 

 '" Fuchsius Hist. Stirp. 701, 702. 1542. 

 "Roeszlin Kreuterb. 116. 1550. 

 " Matthiolus Comment. 262. 1558. 



" Pinaeus i/js/. P/. 194. 1561. Camerarius />/. 296. 1 586. 

 '* Pinaeus Hm/. P/. 194. 1561. 



