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III. Discussion

 It is interesting that there are far fewer sources for melon and cucumber seed in area stores than there are for other vegetables.  This is probably not a reflection of their popularity.  Hugh Grove, who traveled in Tidewater, Virginia records in his diary (1732): “Musk Melons are plentifull Enough but they plant them among their Corn in ye shade & ordinary ground without any Care as our Gardeners use.”  He does write primarily of the vegetables found on the tables of the gentry so it is possible that crops such as beans, cabbages and turnips had a wider use among all classes of people while melons and cucumbers were considered as luxuries and demand was not as great.

This was certainly true in England.  As late as 1845 Jane Loudon writes in The Lady’s Country Companion: “I would not advise you to grow cucumbers or melons; but, should you feel inclined to try your skill, you have only to have a hotbed…”   Hotbeds are not really necessary to successfully raise melons or cucumbers in Virginia as Hugh Grove’s observation demonstrates, however, Randolph, in A Treatise on Gardening (1793) gives detailed information on the making of hotbeds for both melons and cucumbers.  It may be that the English wisdom that these fruits are difficult to grow transplants to this country to some degree especially below the gentry level.

On the other hand, both cucumbers and melons seem to be commonly grown in slave gardens.   Landon Carter records in his diary in June of 1771 that he goes to visit his old slave Jack Lubber and: “found him prudently working amongst his melon vines.”  The kitchen accounts of Jefferson’s granddaughter, Anne Cary Randolph, records between Aug. 1805 and Oct. 1808 purchases from local enslaved gardeners of over 550 cucumbers.

It is also possible that the scarcity of sources for these seeds reflects the common practice among gardeners of saving seeds of varieties of melons and cucumbers that better suit the American climate rather than purchasing English varieties of seed from local stores.  This is particularly true for melons.  All garden writers in the 19th century recognize certain varieties of melons that are better suited for the American climate than are English varieties.  This may have been true in the 18th century as well.

A. Cucumbers

The modern cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is probably a descendent of the wild Cucumis harwickii, a native of the foothills of the Himalayas. The culinary cucumber was known in India by at least 2000 BC. The Gherkin (Cucumis anguria) descends from the African Cucumis longipes and was introduced to the West Indies, probably with the Portuguese slave trade, from Angola. It has commonly been called the West Indies Gherkin, due to the mistaken belief, dating to at least the 18th century, that the West Indies was its place of origin. All of the ancient Roman writers on agriculture mention the cucumber. Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BC) gives the Latin name of Curvimur for the cucumber, referring to the curvature of the fruit. The Greek name for cucumber is sikys, meaning the plant has no aphrodisiac qualities, hence the Greek proverb; "Let a woman weaving a cloak eat a cucumber; because female weavers, if we believe Aristotle, are unchaste, and eager for love making." Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) records the often repeated story of the cucumber being; "a delicacy for which the emperor Tiberius had a remarkable partiality; in fact there was never a day on which he was not supplied with it".

In France the cucumber is listed in the Capitulare de Villis (c. 800) prepared for King Charlemagne. The cucumber was probably first introduced to England during the reign of King Edward III. A list of seeds prepared by Roger, the gardener to the archbishop of Canterbury, includes "concumber & gourde" (1326-27). It is apparently lost during the wars of York and Lancaster and then reintroduced during the reign of King Henry VIII sometime after 1515. The cucumber is listed in William Turner's A New Herball (1551) and Thomas Hill in The Gardener's Labyrinth (1577) is the first to give complete instructions for growing the cucumber and also is the first to introduce the method of raising cucumbers on hotbeds for an early crop as well as growing them in molds to create fanciful shapes and imprints on the fruit. The first varietal description of cucumbers appear in Gerard's Herball (1597) which lists the common cucumber, adder's cucumber, "peare fashioned Cucumber", as well as an unusual cucumber, or possibly a melon he describes as: "There hath bin not long since sent out of Spain some seeds of a rare & beautiful cucumber, into Strausburg a city in Germany the fruit commeth in place, of a foot in length, greene on the side toward the ground, yellow to the Sun ward, straked with many spots and lines of divers colours. The pulpe or meat is hard and fast like that of our Pompion."

John Parkinson lists six varieties of cucumber in Paridisi in Sol (1629), several of them recognizable well into the 18th century. His cucumbers are: "The long greene Cowcumber, The short Cowcumber; being short, and of an equall bignesse in the body thereof, and of unequall bignesse at both ends; The long Yellow, which is yellowish from the beginning, and more yellow when it is ripe, and hath beene measured to be thirteene inches long; Another kinde is early ripe, called The French Kinde; The Dantsicke kind bareth but small fruit (used for pickles); The Muscovie kinde is the smallest of all other, yet knowne (only bearing 4 or 5 fruits per plant about the size of a small lemon."

By the end of the 17th century the cucumber becomes fairly common in English gardens although there persists some question as to its healthfulness. It is said that the antique name of cowcumber arose because the fruit was thought fit only for cows. This is somewhat curious given the fondness of the Roman emperor Tiberius for the cucumber but a certain suspicion about this fruit lingers right up to the 18th century. The Countrey Farme, which is a 1616 translation of the 16th century French work Maisons Rustique, records: “The use of Cucumbers is altogether hurtfull” An entry in Samuel Pepys Diary on Aug. 22, 1663 reads: "Mr. Newburne is dead of eating cowcumbers, of which, the other day, I heard another, I think Sir Nicholas Crisp's son." John Evelyn writes in Acetaria (1699), "The Cucumber it self, now so universally eaten, being accounted little better than Poyson, even within our Memory." Despite Evelyn's optimism Landon Carter records in his diary on July 24, 1766 his concern for his daughter Judy who is sick; "She does bear ungovernable the whole summer through, eating extravagantly and late at night of cucumbers and all sorts of bilious trash."

The cucumber arrives with the first explorers to North America. Columbus introduced the cucumber to Haiti in 1494. Forty Five years later Desoto records seeing cucumbers in Florida (1539). Cartier observes "very great cucumbers" near Montreal in 1535. although in this instance, Cartier’s fruit is more likely a squash. De Sotos’s description of the fruit as "better than those of Spain" would suggest that he was describing a cucumber rather than a squash. The cucumber may have preceded the English colonists to Virginia. The Spanish Captains Amidas and Barlow recorded cucumbers in Native gardens in Virginia in 1584 although this, again, could refer to squashes as most early references to squash class them as cucumbers, melons or gourds. Cucumbers were planted at Jamestown in the first years of that settlement as recorded in A True Declaration of the estate of the Colonie in Virginia (1610);“What should I s “ What should I speake of cucumbers, muske melons, pompions, potatoes, parsneps, carrets, turnups, which our gardens yeelded with little art and labour.” peake of cucumbers, muske melons, pompions, potatoes, parsneps, carrets, turnups, which our gardens yeelded with little art and labour.”

With very few exceptions, all of the cucumbers grown today have been developed within the last 100 years. It appears that all of the 18th century cucumbers with green fruit were of the black spined variety. It is not clear when the white spined varieties, which comprise most of the cucumbers known today, comes into cultivation. The White Spined cucumber is listed by McMahon in American Gardener's Calendar (1806).

1. Long and Short Prickly Cucumbers

These are the most common cucumbers listed in seed inventories both in America and England during the 18th century. They are both black spined, characterized by an uneven surface with many more warts than the modern cucumber. They also tended to be blunter on the two ends rather than the torpedo shape we associate with our modern fruit. These are also the most ancient of cultivated cucumbers. Gerard's illustration of the common cucumber in the Herball (1597) shows a rather short, blunt fruit with many warts, and though not clearly illustrated, it is likely a very spiny fruit by modern standards. John Abercrombie, in Every man his own Gardener (1776), lists six types of cucumbers but comments that the "early short prickly and the long green prickly are commonly cultivated for the general crop." It does not appear that these varieties are as rigid in description and uniformity as what we are accustomed to in modern varieties. Philip Miller, in The Gardeners Dictionary (1754), lists only three general types of cucumbers but comments; "The first of these Kinds is the most common in the English Gardens, of which there are two or three Varieties, differing in the Length or Roughness of the outer Skin of the Fruit: but these being only accidental Sportings of Nature, I shall pass them over without making any Distinction of them." The "Sportings of Nature" referred to by Miller is the result of individual gardeners saving seeds and the many crosses between varieties that arise from this practice. This is recognized by William Cobbett in The English Gardener (1829), who writes: "With regard to sorts, however, people generally save the seed themselves of this plant, or get it from some careful and curious neighbour; and every one sows that which happens to suit his fancy." However, as a general description, Mawe and Abercrombie in the Dictionary of Gardening and Botany (1778) describes the Early Short Prickly as "A short fruit three or four inches long, the rind rather smooth and set with small black prickles." The long prickly seems to average 6 - 10" in length. The primary distinction between the long and the short varieties, as far as garden use, is the shorter varieties are the earlier bearers and are generally used for pickles.

Ferring Burr in Field and Vegetable Gardens of America (1865) lists both the Long Prickly and the Short Prickly cucumber saying that they differ from the London Long Green in that they are "much thicker in proportion to its length; and also in the character of its flesh, which is more pulpy and seedy." Because these are not desirable characteristics to the modern gardener, very few cucumber varieties available today would approximate the 18th century prickly cucumbers. A variety called Everbearing, which is a short black spined variety developed about 1888 by J.M. Thornburn & Co. is still available and the Long Green Ridge is a black spined variety available from the English seed house of Thomas Eddy Esq. and said to date to 1787. 

2. White Cucumbers

These may be descendents of the Long Yellow cucumber listed by John Parkinson in Paradisi in Sol (1629).  Stephen Switzer, in The Practical Kitchen Gardener (1727), initially lists three kinds of cucumber: The long green, long yellow and fructa minore (a short cucumber).  However in the text on cucumbers he says: but later years has produced more varieties, viz. and he goes on to list six varieties, three greens, two white and one yellow.  The very next year Richard Bradley publishes the Dictionarium botanicum (1728), in which he lists two sorts of white cucumbers but no yellow and although all subsequent 18th century writers, both here and in England, list the white cucumber, the yellow cucumber seems to disappear from culture.  Philip Miller, in the Gardeners Dictionary (1754), compares the white cucumber to the other varieties as; by far the better Fruit, as being less watery, and containing fewer Seeds, is the most common Kind cultivated in Holland; for I do not remember to have seen one of our green Sort in any of the Markets in that Country.  The white cucumber may have been more common in the gentry gardens because its culture is somewhat more demanding than the green.  Amelia Simmons in American Cookery (1796) alludes to this; the white is difficult to raise and tender.  As there are both long and short varieties of white cucumber listed in period works, most varieties of white cucumbers available today should approximate the type.

3. Serpent and Turkey Cucumber

There is some overlap in the terminology here.  The Turkey cucumber has always been a larger fruit than the common cucumber and has evidently been used as a variety name for several different plants.  In Leonhart Fuchs Historia Stirpium (1542), the turkey cucumber (cucumis turicus), is actually a pumpkin.  Bradley in Dictionarium botanicum (1728), describes two sorts which come from Turkey, [white and green] whose Fruit is very large, long and smooth.  John Abercrombie in Every man his own Gardener (1776), writes the Turkey kinds often grow fifteen or sixteen inches long.  Mawe and Abercrombie in the Dictionary of Gardening and Botany (1778) describe the Long Green Turkey cucumber as a long, smooth, green rinded fruit, without prickles, attaining from ten to fifteen inches in length.  In this country, Gardener and Hepburn, in The American Gardener (1804) and McMahon in American Gardener’s Calendar (1806) list both the green and the white Turkey Cucumber.  All authors describe this cucumber as having few seeds and being a light bearer.  They also may be somewhat less bitter than the prickly sorts.  Amelia Simmons in American Cookery (1796) writes; Cucumbers, are of many kinds; the prickly is best for pickles but generally bitter…chose the bright green, smooth and proper sized.  This is likely a Turkey cucumber judging by her description of it being smooth.

By the 19th century Ferring Burr, in Field and Garden Vegetables of America (1865), writes of the Long Green Turkey; A distinct and well-defined variety; when full grown, sometimes measuring nearly eighteen inches in length.  He describes it as a long, slender cucumber, contracted towards the stem in a neck with only a few seeds produced towards the blossom end.  This variety is probably the Green and White Turkey Cucumber ordered by Robert Carter Nicholas from John Norton in 1771. his cucumber appears to be closer in appearance to the modern cucumber.  It is longer, smoother and has fewer seeds than the black spined varieties.  Modern cucumbers are primarily white spined fruits that have many of the attributes ascribed to the Turkey cucumber.  However, one of first references to the white spined cucumber is found in Bernard McMahon’s American Gardener’s Calendar (1806), who also lists green and white Turkey cucumbers as distinct varieties.  Burr (Field and Garden Vegetables of America, 1865) also lists the White spine and Turkey cucumber as separate varieties.

It is possible that the Turkey cucumber alluded to in some of these works was the Armenian Melon, also called the Turkey cucumber by 18th century sources.  This fruit is actually a melon (Cucumis flexuosus) rather than a cucumber but is flavored much like a cucumber.  It comes in both green and white, has no prickles and can get very long, much longer than the 18” most authors cite.  Harvested at an immature stage it would have few seeds and is much less prolific than the black spined varieties, both traits characteristic of the Turkey Cucumber.  However, as it matures, it produces many seeds in a central cavity, like all melons, and will get quite a bit larger than eighteen inches long.  The mature fruit is also distinctly ribbed, an attribute not cited by European garden works for the Turkey Cucumber. 

In the 1768 edition of The Gardeners Dictionary Philip Miller classes the Turkey cucumber as Cucumis flexuosus, the current genus and species of the Armenian melon.  However, Abercrombie, in The Universal gardener and botanist (1797) lists the Turkey Cucumber and the Serpent Cucumber as distinct varieties, describing the Serpent Cucumber as: “Cucumis flexuosus – Serpent Cucumber, or Melon.  With sublobate, angulate leaves, and very long, slender, cylindric, furrowed, curved fruit…some of which grow six or seven feet in length.”  This is certainly what is now often known as the Armenian melon.  Burr also lists the Turkey Cucumber and the Serpent Melon (C. flexuosus) as distinct varieties in Field and Garden Vegetables of America (1865)

Another possible, and perhaps more likely, identification of the Turkey cucumber is the seedless or parthenocarpic cucumber, generally called the English cucumber today.  It is a long, slender and essentially spineless cucumber grown as a hothouse plant to prevent pollination and seed formation.  Pollinated fruit contains seed, but much smaller and far fewer than the black spined varieties.  One of its most distinctive characteristic is a restricted neck, on the blossom end of the fruit, which agrees with Burr’s description of the Turkey cucumber. 

The Turkey cucumber acquired by John Custis in Williamsburg was certainly the Armenian melon (Cucumis flexuosus).  On Aug. 28, 1737 Custis writes to Peter Collinson in London: the seeds of the long cucumber you sent me; I planted but none came up; I gave my son 3 seeds which all came up; notwithstanding the excessive drouth he had one more than 3 feet long; to the astonishment of many; several people rid many miles to see it…there are more people begd some of the seed; then 10 cucumbers can afford.  A memo in Hortus Collinsonianus, p. 60 reads: I sent seeds of a Turkey cucumber to Mr. Custis in Virginia, in the year 1737; it produced a fruit three feet long and fourteen inches round; grew in one night three inches in length, and people came twenty miles round to visit it.  This fruit was a local sensation and is mentioned in the August 12-19, 1737 edition of the Virginia Gazette:  There grew, this summer, in the Garden of Mr. Daniel Parke Custis, in New-Kent County, a Cucumber, of the Turkey or Morocco Kind, which measured a Yard in Length, and near 14 Inches round the thickest Part of it…They are ribb’d almost like a Musk-melon, colour’d like a Water-melon; and taste much like the common Cucumber.  Several curious Persons have been to view them, the like having never been seen in these Parts before.

The following year another article appears in the Virginia Gazette (Aug. 25 - Sept. 1, 1738) in response to an article that appears in a Boston newspaper concerning the cucumber article in the Gazette.  Mr. Parks begins the article with a quote from the Boston paper and then goes on to insure the veracity of the now famous Virginia cucumber.  Last Week was cut out of a Garden belonging to Capt. Wells of Cambridge…a Water Melon, that was in circumference, both Ways, a Yard and an Eighth Part of a Yard, which weighed 36 Pounds and 10 ounces…This Rarity we send to Virginia, in Return for their Cucumber.  If the Author of this Paragraph was ingenuous and candid in his Account, we receive his Present very kindly: But if he intended wittidly to impose upon us an overgrown imaginary Water-melon, for a real Cucumber, supposing our Account to be false…we must beg leave to assure him, that the Description we gave of that Cucumber was true; and that from the Seed of it, and others of the same Kind, abundance of them have been propagated in several Gentlemens Gardens this Year, particularly in That of Mr. Thomas Nelson, Merchant, in York Town, who has one in his Garden, which measur’d (this Day) 40 inches in Length; and has several others 3 Feet long: He had some this Year which exceeded any of these in Size; but being ripe and wither’d are now considerably shrunk.  There are Two Species of them, one Green, the other White; the Green ones are largest, but both of ‘em eat well.  As we have undeniable Proofs of the Truth of this Account, we venture to send it to the Northward, for Improvement, or Admiration.         Mr. Parks

These mammoth cucumbers generate not only national news, but international news as is evident in a Dec. 15, 1768 edition of the Virginia Gazette.  Liverpool, Sept 9  There is now growing in the garden of Peter Holme, Esq: at Green Bank, near this town, a cucumber produced from a seed brought from Turkey, which measures 25 inches and a half in length, and 28 inches in circumference, and weighs upwards of 30 pounds.

Thomas Jefferson, who was a great admirer of the cucumber, does not encounter this plant until 1826.  In an April 22 letter to George Divers concerning the Serpentine cucumber he has received from Leonard Case he writes:  You perhaps noted in the newspapers some 3. or 4. months ago the mention of cucumbers in a particular garden in Ohio which measured 2 ½ f. and 3. f. in length.  Having a friend in that quarter I wrote and requested him to procure and send me some seed from one of the identical cucumbers.  He has sent it, and to multiply the chances of securing it, I send you 9. seeds, assured that nobody will be more likely to succeed than yourself. In this case, Jefferson is almost certainly referring to the Armenian melon, which is often called the Serpentine or Serpent cucumber today.

4. Gherkin Cucumber

The gherkin is of African origin and was probably introduced to the West Indies by the Portuguese. As late as 1919 it was listed as a native of the West Indies in Stutevant's Edible Food Plants of the World. It is described by John Ray in his Historia Plantarum in 1688 and John Evelyn in his translation of De La Quintinye's The Complete Gardener (1693). Evelyn describes it as a variety used for pickles, "which last are commonly called Cornichons, or horned Cucumbers, and in English, Crumplings, and Guerkins." Evelyn again lists the "Gerckems" for pickling in Acetaria (1699) but it seems to play a very minor role in the English garden. Minton Collins, who kept a store in Richmond, is credited with first introducing the Gherkin to North America in 1792 (Vegetables of New York vol. I part IV, 1937). Bernard McMahon, in American Gardener's Calendar (1806) lists the Gherkin as the "Round Prickly." It is remotely possible that the Gherkin was known in the colonies but not listed under this name. Thomas Jefferson, in a 1813 letter to his brother Randolph Jefferson, recommends to his sister Gardener and Hepburn's The American Gardener as a guide for her to use in the garden and remarks, "she will not find the term Gerkin in the book. It is that by which we distinguish the very small pickling cucumber."

5. Other cucumbers that may be appropriate to Williamsburg gardens

There are several cucumbers found in English literature that are not named in Virginia accounts but may have been here under other names. The Cluster Cucumber or Early Cluster Cucumber is first mentioned by Richard Bradley in Dictionarium botanicum (1728) and is listed by many English authors throughout the 18th century as well as Bernard McMahon in this country in American Gardener's Calendar (1806). It is a black spine cucumber, 5 - 6" long with a blunt, angular fruit produced close to the base of the plant in clusters and is a very early producer. It is best known as a very early season cucumber and is possibly the cucumber advertised by Peter Bellet in 1799 as "early cucumber" or the cucumber ordered by Robert Carter Nicholas in 1771 as "Earliest Cucumber. "While not specifically cited in Virginia it is known in North America prior to revolution. The April 5, 1764 edition of the Boson News-letter includes an advertisement for the “short cluster cucumber” by “Anna Johnson at her shop.”

The Early Frame Cucumber appears late in the 18th or early in the 19th century and is an even earlier producer than the cluster. This cucumber may descend from the short prickly cucumber. McMahon lists the Early Frame in 1806 and Jefferson lists it in 1818.

6. Cucumber Culture

Although the culture of these plants is beyond the scope of this work two points are worth making for their presentation in our gardens. Cucumbers are commonly grown on sticks and this is cited by many authors as beneficial to the plant. Richard Bradley in Dictionarium Botanicum (1728) writes, "to have the best Fruit from them, is to let them use the Claspers Nature has given them, and let them run up sticks." Here in Williamsburg John Randolph writes in A Treatise on Gardening (1793), "If Cucumbers are struck as you do pease, they will run to a great height, and will bear till the frosts destroy them."

There is an ancient debate about the wisdom of soaking cucumber seeds before you plant them and what material they should be soaked in. Thomas Hill in The Gardener's Labyrinth (1577) relates the wisdom of Rutilius, who says the seeds should be soaked in sheep's milk, Pliny who soaks them in water and honey, and Columella who soaks them in sugared water. In all cases it will, according to Hill, "cause the plants, after their perfect growth, to yeeld cowcumbers, both sweet, tender, white, and most pleasant." Stephen Switzer in The Practical Kitchen Gardener (1727) comments on the wisdom of Theophrastus who steeps cucumber seeds in milk, liquid honey or other sweet waters to increase the sweetness of the fruit saying that moderns deny it but everyone agrees that it adds to the quickness of its growth. Thomas Jefferson experiments with soaking cucumber seeds and records in 1774, "Cucumbers the same as No. 6 only that these were steeped in water from Mar. 31 till this day [Apr. 5] when they were sprouted."

B. Melons

The origin of the melon is somewhat obscure, it may be of African descent or it may have originated in Asia Minor. It is also difficult to determine when the melon was first introduced as a culinary fruit as melon seeds are difficult to differentiate from cucumber seeds in archeological collections. However, melon seeds have been tentatively identified in India from around 2000 BC Musk melons and pickling melons are noted in the Shih Ching written in China sometime between 1000-500 BC Melons were probably known by the Romans by the first century AD Pliny in his Natural History, Book XIX, section XXIII (c. 70 AD) writes: “Curious to say, just recently a new form of cucumber has been produced in Campania, shaped like a quince. I am told that first one grew in this shape by accident, and that later a variety was established grown from seed obtained form this one; it is called apple-pumpkin. Cucumbers of this kind do not hang from the plant but grow of a round shape lying on the ground; they have a golden colour. A remarkable thing about them, beside their shape, colour and smell, is that when they have ripened, although they are not hanging down they at once separate from the stalk.” It is a characteristic of many melons to separate from the stalk when ripe so Pliny’s cucumber was most likely a melon.

Melons were classed as cucumbers throughout their early history. William Turner, in A New Herball (1551) writes "of cucumbers and suchlike fruit: After Dioscorides time, by handling of the fruits after divers fashions, there rose up melopepones and melons, and anguria, which are all contained under cucumis." Thomas Hill writes in The Gardener's Labyrinth (1577), "The ancient, both of the Greek and Latine writers of Husbandrie, attributed the Pompons and Mellons, to a kinde of Cucumbers which they confessed, very neer to agree with them, in that the Cucumbers, in their growth have been seene, to be changed in to Pompons, and Mellon Pompons." John Gerard writes in the Herball (1596), "for doubtless the Muske-Melon is a Kinde of Cucumber." Parkinson agrees in Paradisi in Sol (1629), "The melon is certainly a kinde of Cowcomber." This confusion lasts well into the 18th century. Bradley writes in New Improvements of Planting and Gardening (1731), "For the more certain producing of Melons of a right Flavor, let me advise that no Cucumber Plants be set near them, lest the Male Dust of the Cucumbers should happen to be carried with the Wind upon the Blossums of the Melons, and perhaps set them for fruit, which will then certainly give the Melons so produced the Flavour of the Cucumber." This advise is sometimes repeated to this very day when, in fact, the cucumber will not cross with the melon. However, the Serpent Cucumber/Melon, will cross with other melons and will impart a cucumber flavor to them. Could this be the origin of this often repeated wisdom?

This confusion lasts well into the 18th century.  Bradley writes in New Improvements of Planting and Gardening (1731); For the more certain producing of Melons of a right Flavor, let me advise that no Cucumber Plants be set near them, lest the Male Dust of the Cucumbers should happen to be carried with the Wind upon the Blossums of the Melons, and perhaps set them for fruit, which will then certainly give the Melons so produced the Flavour of the Cucumber.  This advice is sometimes repeated to this day when, in fact, the cucumber will not cross with the melon.  However, the Serpent Cucumber/Melon, will cross with other melons and will impart a cucumber flavor to them.  Could this be the origin of this often repeated wisdom?

Melons were first brought to England around the turn of the 16th century. A cookery manuscript attributed to Thomas Fromond contains a list of plants under the title Herbys necessary for a gardyn by letter (c. 1500) that includes "Mylone" in the list of fruits and vegetables. Italian melon seed is ordered for the garden at Hampton Court in 1515 and from here melon culture is spread throughout the gardens of the gentry. In 1612 John Tradescant the Elder presents a bill for "earthen pans for the coveringe of the Mellons" and while he is the gardener to Sir Edward Wolton at St. Augustines's Palace at Canterbury he builds a reputation for the quality of the melons grown there. John Parkinson writes in Paradisi in Sol (1629), "This country hath not had untill of late yeares the skill to nourse them up kindly," and adds, "They have beene formerly only eaten by great personages, because the fruit was not only delicate but rare." As late as 1699 John Evelyn writes in Acetaria of the melon as "Paragon with the noblest Productions of the Garden" and then adds in a note, "That this Fruit was very rarely cultivated in England, so as to bring it to Maturity, till Sir Geo. Gardener came out of Spain. I my self remembering, when an ordinary Melon would have been sold for five or six Schillings."

The melon was introduced to the West Indies by the Spanish and spread rapidly to North America.  William Wood, in New Englands Prospect (1633) sees Muskmillins grown by the native people.  In Virginia the local Indian tribes not only grew melons but had apparently developed indigenous varieties of the melon for John Bannister writes in 1679 (in the mistaken belief that melons are native to the New World); Musk and Water Melons which are a large very pleasant & innocent fruit, I have eaten near half a score of them in an afternoon.  Most of these I suppose grow naturally somewhere or other in the Continent for the Natives had them before this was a Colony & we from them. 

Varieties of melons are even more transient and mutable than cucumbers.  In Dodsley’s work, Adams Luxury and Eve’s Cookery (1744) it is observed; To enumerate all the different Sorts of this Fruit, would not only be endless, but impossible.  Of the recognized melon groups in modern terminology, the Cantelupensis group, which includes the muskmelon, netted skin or rough skin cantaloupe and Persian melon is the best represented of 18th century varieties.  The Dudaim group is represented by the pocket melon and has long been in cultivation in Europe as well as America.  The Inodorus group, which includes the Winter, Honey dew, Crenshaw and Casaba melons are known in Europe by the 17th century and may have been present in the colonies late in the 18th or early in the 19th century.

1. Cantelupensis group

a. Cantaloupe

The true cantaloupe is named after Cantelupa, a papal estate outside of Rome where this melon was first introduced from Armenia in the 15th century. It is first mentioned in Leonhart Fuchs's Historia Stirpium (1542) as Cucumis Pepo. It is pictured as a round to oblong ribbed fruit with many warts or scales on the skin. Gerard in the Herball (1597) calls this melon "Muske Melon," writing that "the barke or rind is of an overworne russet greene colour, ribbed and furrowed very deepely, having often chappes or chinkes, and a confused roughnesse: the pulpe or inner substance which is to be eaten, is of a faint yellow colour." This melon, or its ancestors, stays in cultivation for a very long time and is considered among the best of all melons. Philip Miller, in The Gardeners Dictionary (1768) writes of the "Cantaleupe, which is so called from a place about fourteen miles from Rome, as the best of the melons and describes it as a round melon with a very rough and warty rind and an orange flesh."

Because the name out lives the original variety it is not clear if this is the cantaloupe described in this country in garden books and seed lists. Bernard McMahon writes in the American Gardener's Calendar (1806), "The true Cantaleupe or Armenian warted Melon, is very scarce in the United States." He describes the cantaloupe as "large, roundish and deeply ribbed, a little compressed at both ends, the surface full of warted protuberancesƒthe flesh reddish, firmƒof which there are several varieties, differing principally in colour, and commonly called black rock, golden rock, &c." It is around the turn of the century that cantaloupes commonly come to be called rock melons, due to their thick, hard rind and this probably serves to differentiate them from what we would call, today, the muskmelon.

b. Zatta Melon

Zatte is the Italian word for a canteloupe. Jefferson lists the Zatte DI Massa, which translates as Canteloupe from Massa. (Italy) in 1774. The “Zatte” melon is listed by Giacomo Castelvetro in The Fruit, Herbs & Vegetables of Italy (1614): “Melons continue until September…The zatte, which are yet another kind, go on rather longer. They are at their best and most plentiful around Padua.” Miller, in The Gardener's Dictionary (1754) describes the Zatta melon as a "small Fruit, rather flat than round; the two Ends being compressed: the Skin is rough, generally warted, and deeply furrowed; the Flesh of a red Colour; but seldom very thick." He also observes that while there is little flesh it is generally good. By the time Miller publishes the 8th edition of The Gardeners Dictionary (1768) he remarks, "there is so little flesh in one of these fruit, that they are scarce worthy the trouble of propagating."Miller suggests that this is a late season melon, in agreement with Castelvetro, by giving it the Latin name of “Melo autumnalis.” Zatta disappears as a varietal name in the 19th century but an Italian melon known as Brutto ma Buono (ugly but tasty) seems to be a very similar fruit.

c. Diarbekr Melon

This variety is listed only by Randolph in A Treatise on Gardening (1793) and Gardener and Hepburn in The American Gardener (1804). Both references agree it is among the best of all melon varieties. Randolph writes; "There is a rough notty Melon called the Diarbekr, from a province belonging to the Turkish empire in Asia, which is reckoned the most exquisite of all Melons, which have been brought to great perfection here, and which are not taken notice of by Miller, probably because it has been brought into England since the publication of his dictionary unless it is the Zatta Mellon." This is an interesting statement in that Randolph clearly is not growing both the Zatta melon and the Diarbekr and again illustrates that a number of the plants listed in A Treatise on Gardening are not necessarily being grown by Randolph but are simply a catalog of plants listed by Miller. His statement that the Diarbekr melon may be Miller's Zatte Melon implies that it is a small melon, the rough and knotty appearance agrees with the description of the Zatte melon which would make it a Cantaloupe or Rock Melon type.

Heirloom cantaloupes that are still available and may be used to illustrate the type include:

The Prescott Fond Blanc is a light skinned, flattened, ribbed and warted canteloupe. White or gray melons are also listed by: Evelyn (De La Quintinye), The Complete Gardener (1693), Abercrombie, Every man his own Gardener (1776), Loudon, Encyclopedia of Gardening (1822), Cobbett, The English Gardener (1829) lists a Silver Rock and Ferring Burr in Field and Garden Vegetables of America (1865) lists the Prescott Cantaloupe as one of the rock cantaloupes.

Black Rock is listed by Bernard McMahon in the American Gardener’s Calendar (1806). The variety available today is an oval, deeply furrowed, dark green melon that turns yellow upon ripening. This agrees with the description of the Black Rock in An Encyclopedia of Gardening, J.C. Loudon, 1834 that observes that they turn yellow when ripe. The Black Rock available today is a smooth skinned variety. Apparently, the earliest form of this melon had noticeable warts.

De'Algiers is an heirloom French cantaloupe said to date to the 18th century. This is possibly McMahon's Large African which is synonymous to Vilmorin's Algerian, as listed in The Vegetable Garden (1885) and cited by Weaver, Heirloom Vegetable Gardening (1997). It is a ribbed and warted oval fruit that matures with yellow and green splotches. In appearance it is nearly identical to the Cantelope Melon illustrated in George Brookshaw’s Pomona Britannica (1812).

a. Muskmelon or Netted Melon

Today, muskmelon and cantaloupe are used interchangeably to describe any member of the Cantalupensis group, typified by a very aromatic, usually orange or yellow flesh. This confusion dates to a very early period. Gerard's description of the "Muske Melon" in the Herball (1597) appears to be of the true cantaloupe or rock melon type. In Bailey's Hortus (1858) he writes of the muskmelon, "now widely cultivated in many forms in North America, mostly under the erroneous name cantaloupe which is properly applied to a race with hard and scaly or warty rinds and seldom grown with us." It is difficult to separate these two types of melons in 18th century references. It is not clear when the first thin rind or netted melons appear. The melons illustrated in Parkinson's Paradisi in Sole (1629) and Gerard's Herball (1597) do not appear to be netted. The first clear reference to what appears to be a muskmelon that I can find comes in John Evelyn's translation of La Quintinye's The Complete Gardener (1693) in which he describes the best variety of melon as "not large, but of middling Size, the Rind thin, faintly Embroider'd, and without being Ribb'd or divided along the Sides." Randolph's "Netted wrought melon" listed in A Treatise on Gardening (1793), is clearly a reference to the netted muskmelon.

Both orange and green-fleshed varieties of melons are listed by many sources in 18th century literature. It appears that the green-fleshed varieties tend to be of the earlier sort and may be smoother than the later, orange-flesh varieties. Stephen Switzer remarks on this in The Practical Kitchen Gardener (1727) in his description of early melons, "the early green little melon, and the Anjou or Icay melon being the chiefest of this class." He also writes that the later melons are larger and more ribbed. John Hill in Eden or, A compeat body of Gardening (1757) describes the small green melon as, "the Rind of this is smooth, and the Flesh is green." This would lead me to believe that the "Green Fleshed Melon" described by Randolph in A Treatise on Gardening (1793) would likely be a smooth melon. Another green-fleshed melon that is said to date to the 18th century is the Ann Arundel which was cultivated by a Dr. Hill in the 1730's in Londontown, Maryland. (Weaver, Heirloom Vegetable Gardening, 1997). This melon is not ribbed and generally has only a faint netting though heavily netted Ann Arundel melons are also available. Peter Bellet’s 1799 advertisement in the Virginia Gazette of fine orange and green streak cantaloupe probably refers to muskmelons rather than the true cantaloupe. Benard McMahon lists a Netted Green Flesh melon in 1806. Regardless of netting, it is likely that all references to green-fleshed melons in the 18th century are muskmelons.

The green-fleshed melon comes to dominate the American market in the next century. William Cobbett writes in The English Gardener (1829), "There is only one fine musk melon that I ever saw in America; which is called the citron melon, having the flesh nearly white and being of the shape of a lemon." This is not the citron Citrullus lanatus) we know today which is used more for pickling or fruitcake than for eating fresh. Burr, in Field and Garden Vegetables of America (1865) describes the Citron melon as a small fruit, 6"x 5½", deeply and regularly ribbed with a thickly netted green skin. The Citron melon may have been brought to France from Africa in 1777 (Vegetables of New York, Part I, Vol. IV, 1937) and is probably the progenitor of the Pineapple melon. Jefferson lists both the Pineapple and Citron melon in 1794. A slightly larger melon with similar characteristics is called the Nutmeg melon, listed by Gardener and Hepburn in The American Gardener (1804) and Bernard McMahon in American Gardener's Calendar (1806). Peter Henderson writes in Gardening for Profit (1867) that the Citron melon is the primary market melon while the Nutmeg melon is grown more in private gardens. All of these are green-fleshed melons with distinct netting although there is a great deal of variation within the type.

b. Roman Melon

The Roman melon was ordered by Robert Carter Nicholas in 1771.  There are quite a number of references to the Romana melon in English gardening works and seed lists.  Flanagan & Nutting’s, A Catalogue of Seeds (1834) lists a Netted Romana.  Cobbett, in the English Gardener (1829) lists it as the Early Romana,Loudon, Encyclopedia of Gardening (1822) lists the early Romana as well as a large netted Romana, both with an oval fruit and Miller in the Gardeners Dictionary (1768) describes the Romana as an early variety.  In this country the Romana melon is listed in Gardener and Hepburn’s The American Gardener (1804) and Bernard McMahon describes it in American Gardener’s Calendar (1806) as a great bearer, comes early, but the fruit much smaller though well flavored.  George Brookshaw illustrates the “Scarlet flesh Romana” in Pomona Britannica (1812).  It is a distinctly ribbed, oval melon with a dark green, roughly netted rind and orange flesh.  J.C. Loudon describes the “Large Netted Romana” in An Encyclopedia of Gardening (1834) as: “regularly netted all over, shallow furrowed, oval, solid, 9 – 10 lbs. Rind hard, pale yellow, flesh full yellow.”

By the middle of the 19th century the Romana melon disappears as a variety.  It may be similar to the Orange Cantaloupe listed by Ferring Burr in Field and Garden Vegetables of America (1865).  This is described as a netted melon, particularly near the stem, and as An oval variety, about six inches in length by five inches in diameter…Very early and productive.

c. Persian Melon

This another orange fleshed melon that appears occasionally in the literature though not near as often as those listed above. Jefferson first records it in Virginia in 1816. It appears to be a somewhat smaller melon, perhaps similar to the Roman melon although according to James Justice, author of British gardener’s new director (1771) not as well flavored: “Of the variety of Melon seeds, which are imported is that of the Persian Melon, a fruit far inferior to the Cantaleupe.”

3. Dudaim Group

a. Pocket Melon

This is a very small melon grown solely for its frangrance today but apparently also had culinary uses in the 18th century.  The Natural History, often attributed to William Byrd II, lists a fragrant melon which may be a melon of this type.  John Custis, in a 1737 letter to Peter Collinson writes of a melon that is probably of this type: the melon which you are desirous of some seeds from its pretty color and scent, has bin very plenty in this country my negros used to make multitudes of them but finding them unfit to eat; and by most thought a disagreeable smell; left of planting them; and tho I have made a general enquiry to get some of the seeds, can not hear of any.  Collinson replies in February, 1738; I am confounded with shame att what you Mention about sending so farr for the sweet smelling Mellon.  It gives Mee great uneasiness that you should take so much pains & trouble about a thing of no Real Value but Curiosity it will make Mee Cautious what I ask for the Future. Custis is able to find this melon in Virginia and replies the same year (1738): “Let me intreat you not so much as to dream that I shall ever think anything a trouble that I can by any means oblige you in; I have at last got some seeds of the sweet smelling Mellon and have planted some which are come up well; I hope to raise some for you but in the mean time have sent you part of the seeds I got from a gentleman’s quarter a good distance from me.”

John Randolph, in A Treatise on Gardening (1793) list the Portugal or Pocket Melon, writing that it also has been called  by the name of king Charle’s Melon, because he used to carry one in his pocket, and also Dormers Melon, because brought from Portugal by a general of that name.  This, again, is a quote from Millers Gardeners Dictionary (1754) and the King Charles they refer to is almost certainly Charles II who died in 1685 so this would date the cultivation of this melon to at least the 17th century.  Miller seems to say in the Gardeners Dictionary (1754) that it has been through neglect that not one in an hundred of them are fit to eat, hinting that this melon had some culinary use. 

4. Inordrus Group

These are the melons known today as the Honeydew, Crenshaw, Casaba, Spanish or Winter melons They were the Winter melons of the 18th century, because they store well, even improving in flavor during storage, and can be used well into the winter months. There is no direct reference to a Winter melon in Williamsburg in the 18th century. Custis receives a Calmuc Mellon with fruit 2 feet long from Peter Collinson in 1736. The Winter melons are typically oval and quite large so this could be a possible reference. Jefferson lists a Winter melon in 1805. They are certainly known in England. Gerard, in the Herball (1597), lists a "Spanish Melon" writing, "The fruite groweth neere unto the stalke, like unto the common Pompion, very long, not crested or furrowed at all, but spotted with very many such marks as are on the backside of the Harts-tongue leafe. The pulpe or meate is not so pleasing in taste as the other." This description and the accompanying illustration looks very much like a Winter melon or what is still called a Spanish Melon in some catalogs. Braddley, in New Improvements of Planting and Gardening (1731), writes that "the Italians have a Melon which is commonly ripe about Christmas" that may describe a Winter melon.

James Justice describes what appears to be a winter melon in British gardener’s new director (1771): “I have the seed of a Melon, which I sow the first week in April; it is very curious, as it never sets its fruit until three months after it has been sown…it swells, becomes very large, and continues green and very hard in the skin, and seems to part with its pedicle about the middle of October, still continuing green and hard…I had it from Monsieur Rathgeb, the Imperial Resident in London, who informed me that it was the Melon they used in Italy in winter.  When they part from their pedicle, they are hung up in a cool room…one by one in nets, and ten days before they are used, they are brought into the kitchen, or a room where a good fire is kept: there they ripen during the whole winter; when the skin becomes thin, turns to a lemon yellow, and emits a very poignant odour.”

C. Watermelon

The ancestor of the modern watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is a native of the Kalahari desert in southwest Africa. Watermelon seed was found in the tomb of Tutankhaman (1370-1352 BC) and it was during their exile in Egypt that the Hebrews were introduced to the fruit. Leonhart Fuchs lists a watermelon as citrullus in the Historia Stirpium (1542). This was possibly the citron melon (C. lanatus, var. citroides), a smaller, harder fruit used primarily in preserves. Gerard's "Citrull Cucumber" listed in the Herball (1597) certainly appears to be a citron. Basilius Besler illustrates a watermelon in the Florilegium (1613) that has the distinctive striping characteristic of many modern watermelons. It is not clear when watermelons were first introduced to England. John Evelyn writes in Acetaria (1699), "There is also a Winter-Melon, large with black Seeds, exceedingly Cooling, brought us from abroad, where they drink Water after eating Melons." Stephen Switzer records in The Practical Kitchen Gardener (1727), "there is also a winter or rather watermelon, with large black seeds, some of which I have this year reciev'd from France." Although known in England, the watermelon has always been a very minor fruit for the English who do not have a climate suited for their growth. Philip Miller in The Gardeners Dictionary (1754) lists eight varieties of watermelons but writes that they "are cultivated in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and most other warm Countries in Europe; as also in Africa, Asia and America; and are by the Inhabitants of those Countries greatly esteemed for their wholsome cooling Quality; but in England they are not so universally esteemed, though some few Persons are very fond of them."

The watermelon was brought to the Americas by the early Spanish and Portuguese explorers and were quickly adopted by the native people. John Smith does not mention the watermelon as being in Virginia in his writing but they are found by Hilton in Florida before 1664 and Father Marquette finds them along the Mississippi River in 1673 writing that they "are excellent, especially those with red seeds." In Virginia, the Reverend John Bannister describes Watermelons in his Natural History (1688) as "having the rind of a lively green colour, the meat of a pale Carnation, & the seed black." In 1736 Peter Collinson sends John Custis Watermelon seed "from Astacan which Lies near the Mouth of the Wolga on the Caspian sea, saying that they are much famed." Custis writes back in 1737 that "Some of your watermellons seeds came up but I can see little difference between them and our[s]."

Randolph does not include watermelons in A Treatise on Gardening (1793) nor does Prentis list them in the Monthly Kalender & Garden Book (1784-1788) but they are clearly a prized fruit with the Virginia colonists. Hugh Grove records in his diary in 1732 that although the Virginians grew musk melons they were fondest: “chiefly of Watermelons which is green and bigg as a Pumpin (smooth not furrowed) They eat it as an apple.”  In The Journal of Lieut. William Feltman (1781-82), a soldier of the First Pennsylvania Regiment, he observes in Hanover Co. Virginia on August 17, 1781; This evening I had an invitation from Capt. Pierson to assist him in eating two water-melons, which were the best and finest I ever see.  This country is full of them; they have large patches of two and three acres of them.  They also seem to be grown by all classes of people.  Fithian records in his diary about receiving watermelons from the Carter slave Daddy Gumby in 1774 and the indentured servant, John Harrower records in his diary (1775) that he plants watermelons in My Plantation for my Amusement.  At the plantation of Col Frances Taylor watermelons afford a social event in 1787:  Aug. 25, J. Taylor came after and had some Watermelons; Aug. 27, C.T. family…came with us to eat Watermelon; Aug. 28, Hubd Taylor called to eat Watermelon.

Peter Kalm records on Sept. 19, 1749 during his travels from Philadelphia to Canada: “Watermelons are cultivated in great plenty in the English and French American colonies, and there is hardly a peasant here who has not a field planted with them. (They are also very popular with the Indians and they have grown them for so long there is some question if they knew them before the Europeans came.)”

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