The melon, being thus a native of warm climates, is necessarily tender in those of Europe, but being an annual, it is successfully cultivated by gardeners with the aid of glass and artificial heat of about 75° to 80°. The fruit of the melon may be seen in great variety, whether with respect to the colour of its rind or of its flesh, its taste or its odour, and also its external form and size. The flesh is soft and succulent, of a white, yellowish, or reddish hue, of a sweet and pleasant taste, of an agreeable, sometimes musk-like odour, and forms one of the most delicious of fruits, which, when taken in moderation, is wholesome, but, like all other fruits of a similar kind, is liable to cause indigestion and diarrhcea when eaten in excess, especially by those unaccustomed to its use.
All travellers in Eastern countries have borne testimony to the refreshment and delight they have experienced from the fruit of the melon. But we shall content ourselves with referring to Alpinus, who, having paid particular attention to such sub jects, says of the Egyptians, Fructibus, &c. se replent, ut ex its solis stepe ccenam, vel prandium perficiant, cujusmodi sunt precocia, cucurbitw, pepones, melopepones; quorum quidem nomen genericum est Batech ' (Rerum /Egypt. Hist. I. 17). He also describes in the same chapter the kind of melon called Abdellavi, which, according to De Sacy, receives its name from having been intro duced by Abdullah, a governor of Egypt under the Khalif Al Mamoon. It may be a distinct species, as the fruit is oblong, tapering at both ends, but thick in the middle; a figure (tab. xli.) is given in his work De Plantis but Forskal applies this name also to the Chate, which is separately described by Alpinus, and a figure given by him at tab. xl.
The Cucumis Chate is a vinous plant with trail ing stems, leaves roundish, bluntly angled, and toothed; the fruit pilose, elliptic, and tapering to both ends. usum corporibus in cibo ipsis turn crudis, turn coctis vescentibus, salubrem esse apud omnes eorum locorum incolas creditur ' (Alpin. I. c. p. 54). Hasselquist calls this the ' Egyptian melon' and `queen of cucumbers,' and says that it grows only in the fertile soil round Cairo; that the fruit is a little watery, and the flesh almost of the same substance as that of the melon, sweet and cool. ' This the grandees and Europeans in Egypt eat as the most pleasant fruit they find, and that from which they have the least to appre hend. It is the most excellent fruit of this tribe of any yet known' (Hasselquist, Travels, p. 258). Forskal, uniting the Abdellavi and Chate into one species, says it is the commonest of all fruits in Egypt, and is cultivated in all their fields, and that many prepare from it a very grateful drink (Flora dEgyptiaco-Arabka, p. r68).
With the melon it is necessary to notice the Water-Melon, which is generally supposed to be specially indicated by the term Battich. But this it would be difficult to determine in the affirmative in a family like the Cucurbitaceas, where there are so many plants like each other, both in their herbage and fruit. In the first place, the term
Battich is rather generic than specific, and there fore, ifAbattichim were similarly employed, it might include the water-melon, but not to the exclusion of the others. In the second place, it is doubtful whether the water-melon was introduced into Egypt at a very early period, as we find no distinct men tion of it in Greek writers. It is now common in all parts of Asia. It seems to have been first dis tinctly mentioned by Serapion under the name of Dullaha, which in the Latin translation is inter preted, `id est melo magnus viridis;' and Sethio is quoted as the earliest author who applies the term 'Ay-yap/ow to the water-melon, as has subsequently been frequently the case, though it is often dis tinguished as an Anguria indica. Serapion, how ever, quotes Rhases, Meseha, and Ishmahelita. In the Persian books referred to in a Note, the author finds Battich hindee given as the Arabic of turbooz, which is the name assigned in India to the water melon. So Alpinus, speaking of the anguria in Egypt, says, 'vulgo Batech el lifaovi (water), et in Scriptoribus Medicis Batech-Ixa'i vel Anguria in dica dicitur.' One of the Persian names is stated to be hina'uaneh. It may be indigenous to India, but it is difficult, in the case of this as of other long-cultivated plants, to ascertain its native country with certainty. For, even when we find such a plant apparently wild, we are not sure that the seed has not escaped from cultivation; and at present we know that the water-melon is cultivated in all parts of Asia, in the north of Africa, and in the south of Europe.
The water-melon is clearly distinguished by Alpinus as cultivated in Egypt, and called by the above names, qua intus semina tantum, et aquan dulcissimam continent.' It is mentioned by Foe skal, and its properties described by Hasselquist. Though resembling the other kinds very consider ably in its properties, it is very different from them in its deeply-cut leaves, from which it is compared to a very different plant of this tribe—that is, the colocynth. Citrullus folio colocynthidis secto semine nigro.' A few others have cut leaves, but the water-melon is so distinguished among the edible species. The plant is hairy, with trailing cirrhiferous stems. The pulp abounds so much in watery juice that it will run out by a hole made through the rind; and it is from this peculiarity that it has obtained the names of water-melon, melon d'eau, wasser-melon. Hasselquist says that it is cultivated on the banks of the Nile, in the rich clayey earth which subsides during the inundation, and serves ' the Egyptians for meat, drink, and physic. It is eaten in abundance, during the season, even by the richer sort of people; but the common people, on whom Providence hath bestowed no thing but poverty and patience, scarcely eat anything but these, and account this the best time of the year, as they are obliged to put up with worse at other seasons of the year' (Travels, p. 256).— J. F. R.