SC - Watermelon

[linneah at erols.com]

> Just to throw in my 2 cents... in taking an archaeology course we were shown
> pictures of Bushmen eating what appeared to be a small watermellon.. It was
> known as a "Bitter mellon" and the archaeologist we questioned said that they
> were NOTHING like the mellons that origionated in the Americas.  Our are sweet,
> the ones from Africa are definitely not.
> 
> These mellons, however, do contain a great deal of moisture and are what the
> Bushmen survive on during the dry season.  It is possible that the mellons seen
> in the illustrations and mentioned are these bitter mellons.
> 
> Do the references sited above say anything about the mellons being sweet?
> That would be the best way to tell which are being refered to.
> 
> One more thing, I keep hearing about/reading about gourds.  What are they?  I
> had been taught that the winter squash we eat are also New World.
> 
> Linneah

My apologies to everyone on the list.  I have just completed some more 
investigation and the watermelon did, indeed, origionate in North Africa and 
was brought to the Americas.  I still wonder about whether it was sweet or 
whether ours today is a descendant of the bitter melons I mentioned above.

Linneah
who can sometimes be too quick to show her limited knowledge