432 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



divided into five lobes. Fruit numerous, very small, depressed at 

 the ends, unribbed, but marked with bands of green and yellow ; 

 flesh not thick, pale orange, and uneatable; seeds small and oval 

 shaped. The scent of this fruit, which resembles that of other 

 Melons, though less powerfully, is pleasant enough in the ripening 

 fruit ; but the flavour of the fruit does not correspond with the 

 perfume, and its chief value as a plant is for covering trellises, etc. 

 To this variety has been long ascribed the Peach Melon, a small, 

 smooth, yellow fruit, scarcely worth eating when raw, but as a 

 preserve recalling the flavour of the Peach to some palates ; but it 

 is rather referrable to the Quito Melon, already mentioned, if indeed 

 the two are not identical. 



WATER-MELON 



Citrullus vulgaris, Schrad. ; Cucumis Citrullus, Ser. ; Cucurbita 

 Citrullus, L. Cucurbitacece. 



French, Melon d'eau, Pasteque. German, Wasser-Melone. Italian^ Cocomero. 

 Spanish, Sandia. Portuguese, Melancia. 



Native of Africa. Annual. The Water-Melon is a climbing 

 plant with slender and very long stems, particularly suitable for 

 warm climates, where the watery but insipid pulp of the fruit is 

 considered very refreshing. The whole of the plant is covered with 

 long, soft, grayish hairs. The leaves are rather large, and divided 

 into numerous segments, which are also cut or lobed. All the 

 divisions of the leaves, as well as the spaces between the divisions, 

 are rounded in outline, which gives the foliage of the plant a very 

 peculiar appearance. The flowers are rather like Melon-flowers ; 

 they are monoecious, and the female flowers are placed on the top 

 of the ovoid and very hairy ovaries, which, as they grow, become 

 changed into perfectly smooth, spherical, or oblong fruit. The 

 colour of the fruit is sometimes a uniform more or less dark green, 

 and sometimes variegated and marbled with grayish green on a 

 darker ground. The fruit is filled with flesh or pulp, the colour of 

 which varies from greenish white to dark red. The seeds are in 

 longitudinal rows, and are flat, oval, short, and of various colours 

 white, yellow, red, brown, or black. Their germinating power lasts 

 for six years. The varieties of Water-Melons are almost without 

 number, the plant being very extensively cultivated in countries 

 where little importance is attached to pureness of variety, and 

 where different kinds may be seen growing and flowering side 

 by side. 



CULTURE. The Water-Melon, being a native of warm countries, 

 is not much grown in Europe, except on the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean and in the south of Russia, where it forms an important 

 article of food. In all tropical countries it is one of the commonest 



