3. The Melon-Like Pumpkin, Cucurbita Pepo moschata

The Melon Pumpkin, The Musk Pumpkin

1The oval shape of the seeds of the Melon-like Pumpkin, the size of its flowers, their flaring into a funnel, their yellow color, the layout of the branches, the angular profile of the leaves, makes them similar to the Pepos, whereas the softness of these same leaves, their soft and dense downiness, the paleness of the outside of the flowers, their constriction at the base of the calyx, the lengthening of the sepals of the calyx, and the musky flavor of the fruit flesh, gives it quite a similarity to the species of Calabashes [bottle gourds]. This fruit flesh is also drier than that of the Long-fruited Squash, with finer fibers; but it is at the same time firmer than that of the long-fruited bottle gourds, and in that way takes after that of the Pattypans. This species, ambiguous in its nature, appears to have been little specified in the works of botanists.

2Otherwise, one can observe diverse races in the Melon-like Pumpkin, which is subdivided just as the Pepos are, into quite a good number of varieties, that are either related to the shape of the fruit, flat, spherical, oval, cylindrical, club-shaped or pestle-shaped, more or less large, with lobes more or less pronounced, or related to the color, of a green more or less intense on the exterior, and inside from the palest saffron yellow to orange red. The name Melon Pumpkin which is given to it by our Creoles of the Antilles, indicates quite well the interest they put in it. In our cold provinces, the Melon-like Pumpkins are only successful with the security of hot beds, similar to the needs of the watermelons. It is cultivated in Italy and in Provence, under the name Musk Pumpkin.

Cucurbita moschata Duchesne (1786b, Table on p. 7)

3The binomial Cucurbita moschata was first published in the Essai sur l’Histoire Naturelle des Courges, in the table on page 7. It was not named in the Encyclopédie Méthodique, Botanique from which the Essai was composed, because the editor, Lamarck, refused to recognize it as a species separate from C. pepo. The name Cucurbita moschata was published again several years later in Duchesne’s contribution to the Encyclopédie Méthodique, Agriculture, edited by Tessier and Thouin (Duchesne 1793). The characteristics distinguishing C. moschata from C. pepo are given in the Essai and at greater length and more detail in the draft manuscript (Duchesne 1786a, p. 26) prepared for Lamarck’s Encyclopédie: Ces mêmes poils doux, courts et serrés se retrouvent sur toute la plante et en forment le caractère le plus reconnoissable. La forme des feuilles est celle des feuilles de Pépons non découpées mais simplement anguleuses: elles ne sont pas des plus grandes. Les fleurs jaunes et à peu près de même structure et de même grandeur que celles de plusieurs Pépons se distinguent seulement par les pointes du calice beaucoup plus allongées... (These same downy hairs, short and appressed are found on the entire plant, forming its most recognizable character. The shape of the leaves is that of the Pepos not cut but simply angular: they are not very large. The flowers are yellow and nearly the same structure and same size as those of several Pepos, distinguished only by the sepals of the calyx being much longer…).

4The Latin designation that Duchesne chose, moschata, was taken from the common name in the French countryside, Citrouille musquée, that is, Musk Pumpkin, the taste of the fruit flesh being perceived as highly aromatic. Duchesne was unaware of any literary account of this species by botanists. An illustration from 1562 found in the estate of Gesner (Zoller et al. 1979) might be a cheese-type pumpkin of C. moschata from the U. S. A., and Duchesne’s N^o 94 appears to be quite similar. Ray (1686) described a Pepo lagenarius folio molli as a necked squash that had truly soft foliage and large, yellow flowers, which seems to be a form of C. moschata, but the first illustration of what is clearly C. moschata appears to be a cheese-type pumpkin illustrated in the work of Rheede tot Draakenstein (1688). Although seeds and/or fruits of C. moschata may have been brought to Europe at much the same time as were those of C. pepo and C. maxima, C. moschata is a species adapted to warm weather; as Duchesne pointed out, in cooler regions it could only be grown successfully under protected or semi-protected cultivation. Here is more of what Duchesne (1786a, p. 26) had to say about C. moschata: Quant aux Melonées plus difficiles à élever aux environs de Paris je n’en connois que trois Races distinctes par leurs fruits qui dans l’une sous orbiculaires platies et à côtes et à chair jaune, dans l’autre presque spheriques à chair très rouge musquée même en ce pays, dans la troisième allongés renflés par les deux bouts et fort souvent courbes et à chair beaucoup plus pâle. Le peau des unes et des autres assez fine et tendre comme celle des Potirons, est d’un vert plus ou moins foncé quelquefois mouchetée de taches blanchâtres mais toujours couvertes dans la jeunesse d’un duves qui ne tombe que fort tard. (With regard to the Melon-like Pumpkins, very difficult to grow in the environs of Paris, I have seen in them only three races distinguished by their fruits which in one are flattened globe with lobes and yellow flesh, in another nearly spherical with very red musky flesh even in this country, and in the third elongated, swollen at the two ends and very often recurved of a much paler flesh. The rind of all of them is thin and tender like that of the Great Pumpkins, is more or less intense green sometimes dappled with whitish mottles but always covered when young with a down that is not lost until much later.) The three forms described were, respectively, N^o 94, N^o 96, and N^o 95. Of the former two, Duchesne (1786a, p. 26) wrote C’est de provence que j’ai reçu les graines des deux races à fruits ronds (It was from Provence that I received the seeds of the two round-fruited races). Of the latter, et M. Monti professeur de Bologne m’a fait retrouver l’autre qui j’avois déjà vu ici il y a quatorze à 15 ans élevées de graines tirées de Naples (and Mr. Monti professor of Bologna has obtained for me the other that I had already seen here 14 or 15 years ago raised from seeds taken from Naples).

5Many C. moschata are also daylength-sensitive, and therefore do not flower under the long days and short nights of higher latitudes. These would have been much harder to produce in Europe than the daylength-insensitive C. moschata and the other two major species of pumpkins and squash. Daylength sensitivity was encountered by Duchesne (1786a, p. 26) too: J’ai reçu de Londres des graines Melonées sous le nom de Punkin mais les plantes que j’en ici élevé en 1773 aussi bien tractées que les autres et poussant vigoureusement n’ont pas même produit de fleurs (I received from London seeds of the Melonlike Pumpkins under the name Punkin but the plants that I raised here in 1773 although treated like the others and growing vigorously did not even produce flowers).

6As seen in the text of the Essai above, Duchesne realized that C. moschata was a highly variable species but that he could only successfully grow a very limited number of cultivars in his area. As he wrote in his draft manuscript (Duchesne 1786a, p. 35): Il en existe plusieurs autres variétés qu’il faudroit observa dans Iles d’Amerique, en Espagne, en Italie ou dans nos provinces méridionales (There exist a number of other varieties that would be necessary to observe in the American Islands, in Spain, in Italy or in our southern provinces). Indeed, recent discoveries have led contemporary cucurbit experts to conclude that C. moschata is almost as highly variable as C. pepo, with the greatest variation encountered near its suspected center of origin in tropical northern South America (Wessel-Beaver 2000, Andres 2004).

PLATE 229

7N^o 94. 14 December 1770. 16.8 x 23.1 cm. This is an oblate pumpkin with longitudinal lobes separated by shallow furrows. Except for its light orange-green color, this fruit is identical with those of ‘Cheese’, a cultivar of Cucurbita moschata pumpkin from the southeastern United States that has a pale orange (buff-colored) rind. Seeds of this cultivar were obtained in the French countryside. In Document 6, N^o 94 is given as: 1012 de 139, indicating that this cultivar, first grown in 1769, had bred true, apparently because it was the only C. moschata that had been grown in the vicinity.

PLATE 230

8N^o 95. Dated 26 November. 33.4 x 14.2 and 27.0 x 13.2 cm. Two elongate fruits, very slightly furrowed, of C. moschata and a small cut piece of a third. Rind color is black-green and flesh color is light yellowbrown. This fruit is similar in size, shape, exterior and interior to that of some accessions grown in the Caribbean Islands and Central America. Obtained from M. Monti, Professor of Bologna (Duchesne 1786a), and, according to Document 5, was derived from Martinique.

PLATE 231

9N^o 96*. Undated. 27.4 x 28.3 cm. This is a nearly spherical, shallowly furrowed pumpkin, mediumdark green cut to reveal smooth, thick, intense orange flesh, probably of high quality, and many rather large, light-colored seeds. Rind pattern typical of C. moschata. Below the fruit is written Cucurbita moschata. The inscription in the lower-left corner, Prévost pinxit indicates that this painting was not made by Duchesne himself but rather by the artist, Prévost. Documents 5 and 6 accompanying the drawings list a N^o 96 and a N^o 96*. Document 6 lists N^o 96 as having been drawn by Duchesne himself on 9 February 1773. It has the comment trois loges, gelés et moisis, graines vides (three carpels, frozen and moldy, empty seeds). Evidently, Duchesne considered the drawing of the same cultivar by the professional artist to be much superior to his own drawing of a frozen, moldy, and deformed or immature fruit, and discarded his own. Seeds of this cultivar had been obtained in the French countryside.

PLATE 232

10Unnumbered. Undated. Black-and-white of two fruits, slightly oval with shallow furrows. At lower left corner, in color, is a small slice of medium-intense yellow-orange fruit flesh and a small slice of rind, dark green dappled and mottled with medium yellow, undoubtedly from C. moschata, perhaps from N^o 96 or a progeny of it.