Melon

The melon is an annual, trailing herb that has been developed into many cultivated varieties, among them honeydew, cantaloupe and casaba. Wikipedia says the fruit is a pepo whose flesh is sweet or bland and whose rind may be smooth, ribbed, wrinkled or netted, and that melons were domesticated four times independently. Grieve says it is a native of South Asia, cultivated in warm and temperate regions throughout the world, with male and female flowers on the one plant and fruit that ranges from olive-sized to gourd-sized. She says the root of the common melon is purgative and, in large doses, a certain emetic. Her page also covers other melons, such as the cantaloup and the water melon, which are separate headings.