This natural history drawing from the 'Paper Museum' of Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588–1657) and his brother Carlo Antonio (1606–89) shows at actual size two views – external and cross-section – of a deformed melon, Cucumis melo, a herbaceous annual of the family Cucurbitaceae. The plant is native to parts of Africa, eastern Asia, Australia and various Pacific islands, and is now cultivated and naturalized in all tropical areas of the world. Paintings from Herculaneum demonstrate that the melon was being cultivated in Italy in Roman times, and Pliny noted that the Emperor Tiberius was fond of the fruit.

The specimen illustrated here is a single fruit that has developed abnormally, probably as a result of two ovaries on the same flower having developed simultaneously after pollination. Its rough yellow rind bears a characteristic network pattern, as it belongs to the ‘reticulate’ group of the species. The longitudinal section shows the dense orange pulp and numerous flat whitish seeds.

‘Pozzo’ number 426; laid down on a George III two-ply mount with wash borders (‘type D’ mount).

Text adapted from Fabio Garbari and Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, Flora: The Erbario Miniato and other Drawings, Part B.VI of The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo: A Catalogue Raisonné, 2 vols, London 2007, cat. 281.