262 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS, 



ancient in that country, the Greeks and Romans would 

 have early known it. Now, it is doubtful whether the 

 Silcua of Hippocrates and Theophrastus, or the Pepon of 

 Dioscorides, or the Melopepo of Pliny, was the melon. 

 The passages referring to it are brief and insignificant ; 

 Galen ^ is less obscure, when he says that the inside of 

 the Melopepones is eaten, but not of the Pepones. There 

 has been much discussion about those names,^ but we 

 want facts more than words. The best proof which I 

 have been able to discover of the existence of the melon 

 among the Romans is a very accurate representation of 

 a fruit in the beautiful mosaic of fruits in the Vatican. 

 Moreover, Dr. Comes certifies that the half of a melon 

 is represented in a painting at Herculaneum.^ The 

 species was probably introduced into the Grseco-Roman 

 world at the time of the Empire, in the beginning- of the 

 Christian era. It was probably of indifferent quality, to 

 judge from the silence or the faint praise of writers in 

 a country where gov/t^mets were not wanting. Since 

 the Renaissance, an improved cultivation and relations 

 with the East have introduced better varieties into our 

 gardens. We know, however, that they often degenerate 

 either from cold or bad conditions of soil, or by crossing 

 with inferior varieties of the species. 



■Water-Melon. — CitruUus vulgaris, Schrader; Cucur- 

 bita Citrullus, Linnaeus. 



The origin of the water-melon was long mistaken 

 or unknown. According to Linnaeus, it was a native 

 of Southern Italy* This assertion was taken from 

 Matthiole, without observing that this author says it was 

 a cultivated species. Seringe,^ in 1828, supposed it 

 came from India and Africa, but he gives no proof. 

 I believed it came from Southern Asia, because of its 



" ' Galen, De Alimentis, 1. 2, o. 5. 



' See all the Vergiliau floras, and Nandin, Ann. 8c. Nat., 4tli series, 

 7ol. xii. p. 111. 



• Comes, III. Piante nei DipinU Pompeiani, in 4to, p. 20, in the Museo 

 Nation., vol. iii. pi. 4. 



* Habitat in Apulia, Calabria, Sicilia ^Linnaeus, Species, edit. 1763, 

 p. 1435). 



' Seringe, in Prodronms, iii. p. 301. 



