DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15174#0166
150
KINGDOM OF BOKHARA.
BOOK I.
about two inches thick, and is sweet to the very
skin; which, with the inhabitants, is the great proof
of superiority. A kind of molasses is extracted
from these melons, which might be easily converted
into sugar. There are various kinds of melons : the
best is named " Kokechu," and has a green and
yellow coloured skin; another is called £C Ak nubat,"
which means white sugar candy: it is yellow, and
exceedingly rich. The winter melon is of a dark
green colour, called " Kara koobuk," and said to
surpass all the others. Bokhara appears to be the
native country of the melon, having a dry climate,
sandy soil, and great facilities for irrigation. Melons
may be purchased in Bokhara throughout the year,
and are preserved by merely hanging them up apart
from one another ; for which those of the winter
crop are best suited. The water melons of Bokhara
are good, and attain also an enormous bulk: twenty
people may partake of one ; and two of them, it is
said, form sometimes a load for a donkey. The
cucumbers are likewise superior.*
* I brought from Toorkistan melon seeds of every descrip-
tion, which I have distributed in this country and India, in
the hope that this delicious fruit may be introduced into Bri-
tain and our Eastern possessions. They have been success-
fully reared in my native county of Forfar, in Scotland, by
Lord Panmure ; also by the Horticultural Society of London,
Dr. Lindley writes to me, that " the fruit was extremely like
" what is called in this country the sweet melon of Ispahan,
" and was of the highest excellence in point of flavour. Only
" one plant was raised, but it produced a fruit which weighed
" seven pounds and a half, and would, in all probability, have
" yielded a good crop, if it had not been killed by an acci-
KINGDOM OF BOKHARA.
BOOK I.
about two inches thick, and is sweet to the very
skin; which, with the inhabitants, is the great proof
of superiority. A kind of molasses is extracted
from these melons, which might be easily converted
into sugar. There are various kinds of melons : the
best is named " Kokechu," and has a green and
yellow coloured skin; another is called £C Ak nubat,"
which means white sugar candy: it is yellow, and
exceedingly rich. The winter melon is of a dark
green colour, called " Kara koobuk," and said to
surpass all the others. Bokhara appears to be the
native country of the melon, having a dry climate,
sandy soil, and great facilities for irrigation. Melons
may be purchased in Bokhara throughout the year,
and are preserved by merely hanging them up apart
from one another ; for which those of the winter
crop are best suited. The water melons of Bokhara
are good, and attain also an enormous bulk: twenty
people may partake of one ; and two of them, it is
said, form sometimes a load for a donkey. The
cucumbers are likewise superior.*
* I brought from Toorkistan melon seeds of every descrip-
tion, which I have distributed in this country and India, in
the hope that this delicious fruit may be introduced into Bri-
tain and our Eastern possessions. They have been success-
fully reared in my native county of Forfar, in Scotland, by
Lord Panmure ; also by the Horticultural Society of London,
Dr. Lindley writes to me, that " the fruit was extremely like
" what is called in this country the sweet melon of Ispahan,
" and was of the highest excellence in point of flavour. Only
" one plant was raised, but it produced a fruit which weighed
" seven pounds and a half, and would, in all probability, have
" yielded a good crop, if it had not been killed by an acci-