ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 



283 



2. The watermelon {Citndlus vulgaris). For once there is 

 no doubt of nativity. The watermelon is a characteristic contri- 

 bution of the dark continent, and our colored brother evidently 

 comes honestly by his natural appetite for this luscious fruit. 

 It belongs to central Africa on both sides of the equator, where 

 Livingstone " saw districts literally covered with it, and the sav- 

 ages and several kinds of wild 

 animals eagerly devoured the 

 wild fruit," ^ which is some- 

 times, but not generally, bitter. 

 This fruit was certainly culti- 

 vated by the ancient Egyptians, 

 but there is no proof of antiquity, 

 either botanical or philological, 

 except in northern Africa. 



It would be interesting, in- 

 deed, to follow the futures of 

 other wildlings under civiliza- 

 tion, such as the cucumber, the 

 pumpkin, and the squash, but 

 it is a long story and would 

 lead us far afield. Inasmuch 

 as our chief purpose here is to 

 indicate rather than to exhaust 

 a field, we must content our 



Fig. 49. The huckleberry - 

 enough in the wild 



good 



selves with a hasty glance at what is really a fascinating prospect. 

 Miscellaneous fruits. There are, however, a number that 

 merit further study. The gooseberry and the currant, both in- 

 troduced from Europe, and both also wild over extensive areas 

 of our own country ,2 and which have furnished cultivated varie- 

 ties, are other examples of the fact that many species are 



* " Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 263. 



2 The writer as a boy knew two kinds of wild gooseberry, the " prickly" 

 and the plain, both growing freely in the woods of Michigan. The latter was 

 often brought into the gardens of the pioneers and successfully cultivated, 

 furnishing, in some cases, the principal fruit of the pioneers. 



