Perfumed, sweet, succulent, cooling, a ripe melon can be one of the most delicious of fruits. Melon follows the journeys of the varied fruits known as melons from the sandy wastes of the Kalahari Desert, to the ancient kingdom of Ur in Mesopotamia, to the exotic oases of the Silk Road, and on to Jesuit outposts in Canada, slave plantations in Brazil, Pueblo Indian gardens in the American southwest, and to the farmers in Japan who produce luscious and expensive square melons grown ...