4S T^he Tragical Kitchen Gardiner, 



that impiies the refemblance the fhape 

 of it has to the mains or apple, or per- 

 haps rather the orange kinds : To which 

 alfo the cucumbers and pumpkin> gourd, 

 &c. are alfo ally'd. 

 Its appella- The melon, at leaft the name of it, 

 appears to be a fruit entirely unknown 

 to many of the antients, fince T/mf, 

 who colleded a great part of his Natural 

 Hijiory from others, mentions no fuch 

 thingj tho' he had extraded thofe chap- 

 ters (efpecially the XX^*^) from no lefs 

 than twenty (even very ancient authors 

 and writers of gardening 5 among which 

 were Varro, SyllanOy Cato the Cenfor, 

 Columelky Virgily &c, nor do we find 

 it in any of thofe authors themfelves 

 that have come to hand here 5 and of 

 this opinion alfo were Scaliger and Can- 

 fabon 5 which yet others contradid, as 

 fuppofmg it to be couched under the 

 general term of cucumber 5 and this al- 

 fo feems to be unknowingly confirm'd 

 by P//>y' himfelf, when he tells us that 

 the * odour of the cucumber was of a 

 very refrelhing nature when pared and 



Ipfe cucumis odore defe£lum animi revocat, ^erafo 

 cortice ex oleo, aceto, &c. lii^^io. cap.z, 



drelTed 



