672 The Americaft Naturalist. [August, 
and odor, that when ripe, although not suspended, yet the fruit 
separates from the stem at maturity. Galen,*^ in the second cen- 
tury, treating of medicinal properties, says the autumn fruit \}.e., 
ripe] do not excite vomiting as do the unripe, and further says 
mankind abstain from the inner flesh of the pepo, where the seed 
is borne, but eat it in the melopepo. A half century later Palla- 
dius"^ gives directions for planting melones, and speaks of them 
as being sweet and odorous. Apicius,^* a writer on cookery, 
about 230 A. D., directs 'CddX. pe pones and melones be served with 
various spices corresponding in part to present customs ; and 
Nonnius, an author of the sixth century, speaks of cucumbers 
which are odoriferous.^' In the seventh century Paulus ^gin- 
eta,-^'' a medical writer, mentions the medicinal properties of the 
melopepo as being of the same character, but less than that of the 
pcpo, and separates these from the cucurbita and cncumis, not 
differing from Galen, already quoted. 
From these remarks concerning odor and sweetness, which 
particularly apply to our melon, and the mention of the falling 
spontaneously of the ripe fruit, a characteristic of no other garden 
vegetable, we are inclined to believe that these references are to 
the melon, and more especially so as the authors of the six- 
teenth and following centuries make mention of many varieties, 
as Amatus Lusitanus,^'^ in 1554, who says, "quorum varietas in- 
gens est," and proceeds to mention some as thin skinned, others 
as thicker skinned, some red fleshed, others white. 
I know scarcely enough about melons as yet to classify into 
types, as I am only acquainted with fifty-eight names of varieties 
under growth, but varieties occur that can be described as round, 
flattened, oblong, oval, long ; as smooth, netted, ribbed, warted ; 
as white, green, red, orange fleshed ; as early, late, and winter. 
The following may be considered as notes only ; not as corn- 
Quoted from Lister in Apul 
