[Sca-cooks] watermelons

[Terry Decker]

"The Pliny reference is especially mystifying, since it cites chapters 
(69–70) that go beyond any count I see for book 19 - the last chapter is 
62:"

But 62 is not the last sentence.  Dalby is a Classicist.  He appears to be 
working from a Latin text of Pliny in which each Book, Chapter, and Sentence 
is numbered.  Thus his reference more accurate than providing Book and 
Chapter.  You may also find references containing all three numbers.  The 
LacusCurtius transcription of Pliny 
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/home.html 
provides an example of the numbering system.

There is serious consideration that the "Cucumis" of Pliny is not a 
cucumber, but the word is being used as we would use cucurbit.  The earliest 
reference making this point that I have encountered is Steven Switzer, The 
Practical Kitchen Gardener (1727).

The following passages lead me to agree that Pliny used "cucumis" in the 
general rather than the specific.

"The cucumber makes blossoms one by one, one flowering on the top of the 
other, and it can do with rather dry situations; it is covered with white 
down, especially when it is growing."   Pliny NH 19:24

The "white down" is botanically interesting.  Cucumbers are never hairy. 
Young melons are.

"African cucumbers are the most prolific, and those of Moesia the largest. 
When they are exceptionally big they are called pumpkins."  Pliny NH 19:23.

Watermelons, perhaps?  Incidentally, Moesia is a Roman Province in the 
Balkans, so an African cucurbit is almost certainly a transplant.

"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 from 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."  Pliny NH 19:23

The description suggests this is a round variant of the Canary melon or 
possibly a Casaba melon.

For a far more detailed explanation and consideration of the period 
cucurbits, I would suggest, The Cucurbits of Mediterranean Antiquity: 
Identification of Taxa from Ancient Images and Descriptions 
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/cucurbitsofmed.pdf .

Bear