sturtevant's notes on edible plants 205 



China, says Chang K'ien, the noted legate of the Han dynasty, seems to have brought 

 this " foreign cucumber " from central Asia to China, where it is now largely cultivated 

 and eaten both raw and in a pickle. According to Pasquier, melons were unknown in 

 central or northern Europe until the reign of Charles VIII, 1483-1498, King of France, 

 who brought them from Italy. We find a statement by J. Smith ^ that they were supposed 

 to have been first introduced from Egypt into Rome. They were perhaps known com- 

 monly in Spain before 1493, for Columbus on his second voyage found melons " already 

 grown, fit to eat, tho' it was not above two months since the seed was put into the 

 ground." In 1507, Martin Baimigarten,^ travelling in Palestine, mentions melons as 

 brought to him by the inhabitants. In 15 13, Herrera,^ a Spanish writer, says, " if the 

 melon is good, it is the best fruit that exists, and none other is preferable to it. If it is 

 bad, it is a bad thing, we are wont to say that the good are like good women, and the bad 

 like bad women." In the time of Matthiolus,'' 1570, many excellent varieties were ciilti- 

 vated. The melon has been cultivated in England, says Don,^ since 1570, but the precise 

 date of its introduction is unknown, though originally brought from Jamaica. 



The culture of the melon is not very ancient, says De Candolle,* and the plant has 

 never been found wild in the Mediterranean region, in Africa, in India or the Indian 

 Archipelago. It is now extensively cultivated in Armenia, Ispahan, Bokhara and else- 

 where in Asia; in Greece, South Russia, Italy and the shores of the Mediterranean. 

 About 1519, the Emperor Baber is said to have shed tears over a melon of Turkestan 

 which he cut up in India after his conquest, its flavor bringing his native country to his 

 recollection. In China, it is cultivated but, as Loureiro ' says, is of poor quality. In 

 Japan, Thimberg,' 1776, says the melon is much cultivated, but the more recent writers 

 on Japan are very sparing of epithets conveying ideas of qualities. Capt. Cook 

 apparently distributed the melon in suitable climates along his course around the world, 

 as he has left record of so doing at many places; as, the Lefooga Islands, May 1777, at 

 Hiraheime, October, 1777. 



Coltimbus is recorded as finding melons at Isabela Island in 1494 on his return from 

 his second voyage, and the first grown in the New World are to be dated March 29, 1494. 

 The rapidity and extent of their diffusion may be gathered from the following mentions. 

 In 1516, " melons different from those here " were seen by Pascual de Andagoya in 

 Central America. In Sept. 1535, Jacques Cartier mentions the Indians at Hochelega, 

 now Montreal, as having " musk mellons." '" In 1881, muskmelons from Montreal appeared 



' Smith, J. Dom. Bol. 386. 1871. 

 ' Churchill CoW. Foy. 1:343. 1744- 

 ' De Candolle, A. Geog. 5o<. 2:906. 1855. 

 * Ibid. 



' Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 3:5. 1834. 

 ' DeCandolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:907. 1855. 

 ' Ibid. 

 Ibid, 



' Andagoya, P. de. Narrative Hakl. Soc. Ed. 29. 1865. 

 "Pinkerton CoW. Foy. 12:656. 1812. 



