As early as 1882, the Swiss scholar De Candolle recorded the wild melon specimens collected from Ghana, Africa, including two kinds: one is the wild edible melon growing along the Niger River. Second, it grows on the sand, and its fruit is like plums and fragrant oval melons. 100 years later, a large number of investigations, collections and studies confirmed that cucurbits originated in Africa, and their true wild type only appeared in the east of the Tropic of Cancer in sub-Saharan Africa (T.W.Whitaker. 1962). 1993, Jr.J.H.Kirkbride of the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a book Monograph on Cucurbitaceae Biological System, listing 25 species of subgenus Cucumis. These melons and their wild relatives are almost all produced in Africa, especially in East Africa near the Indian Ocean, such as Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa. Therefore, Africa is the main origin center of cucurbits.

For thousands of years, with the migration of human beings, the cultivation and domestication of plants and the development of agricultural production, many types of melon genetic diversity have appeared in vast areas of the Asian continent. This is just as the Soviet Union Marinina (1977) pointed out according to the fact that there are a large number of wild and semi-cultivated melon plants in India: Melon (referring to the wild, semi-cultivated and cultivated types within melon species) originated in the Indian subcontinent. Esquinas Alcazar (J.T.Esquinas-Alcasar, 1983), an FAO expert who holds the same view, thinks that melon cultivation occurs independently in Southeast Asia, India and East Asia.

Based on the investigation of melon germplasm resources in Xinjiang (1979- 1982), the collection of thin-skinned melon and pear germplasm resources in China (1988- 199 1), and Japan (1986). 1987) and Iowa introduction station (NC-7, Iowa, 1988), it is considered that the secondary origin center of melon is in India. In the long evolution process, the cultivated melon types in the Asian continent can be divided into three derived secondary origin centers (Watermelon and Melon in China, 2000). (1) The secondary origin center of melon cultivation in West Asia, including modern Turkey, Syria and Palestine, is the origin of melon, cantaloupe and melon in Europe and America, and melon Casaba in kashaba. ② The secondary origin centers of cultivated melons in East Asia, including the eastern coastal areas of China, the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, are the origins of conus. ③ The secondary origin centers of cultivated melons in Central Asia, including Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Xinjiang, China, are the origins of ameri and zard, including Hami melon and chandalak in Xinjiang.

K.Kato et al. (2002) revealed the genetic diversity of muskmelon in East and South Asia through molecular polymorphism and morphological characteristics analysis, and analyzed 1 14 wild and cultivated muskmelon samples from India, China, North Korea, Japan, Myanmar, Laos and other countries by using isozyme, RAPD, CAPS and microsatellite technology, and obtained the genetic diversity of Asian muskmelon. Small-seed moisture-tolerant melons (melon and Makuwa) originated in central India. After artificial selection, China was introduced, which was called pear melon and cross melon.

Melon has a long history of cultivation in China. In the Book of Songs (about 1 1 century to the 7th century BC), the thin-skinned melon was described as "eating melons in July and breaking the pot in August", and in the Book of Songs, it was described as "the ancestor of peeling and offering". According to the above written data, the history of cultivating and eating melons in China is over 3000 years. In recent years, archaeologists in China have discovered a cultural site more than 4,000 years ago (Qianshanyang, Xing Wu, Zhejiang), from which melon seeds have been unearthed. This has advanced the cultivation history of thin-skinned melon in China by 1000 years.

Central Asia is the second producing area of melon. According to research, as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries, China and Xinjiang were rich in melons. During the period of 1959, A Jin's tomb (262-420) was excavated in the ancient tomb group of Astana near Gaochang ancient city in Turpan, Xinjiang, and there were half dried melons with the same seeds as the current cultivated varieties in the tomb. Two pieces of melon skin were found in a tomb of the Tang Dynasty (6th-9th century AD), and their reticulation was thicker and deeper than that of the current black eyebrow variety. In the same year, a tomb A from the Northern and Southern Dynasties (4th-5th century AD) was excavated near Takuzi Shalai, bachu county, Southern Xinjiang Autonomous Region, containing melon seed shells 1 1. The above three situations are only archaeological objects. In addition, there are still words to be tested. For example, Liang Shu (about the 6th century AD) records: "In the kingdom of Khotan (now in Khotan) ... Xishan City has houses, markets, melons and vegetables." Another example is Changchun's The Journey to the West Volume (1 148- 1227), which records: "From the ninth day to the back of Changba City (that is, Zhangbali at the northern foot of Tianshan Mountain has been annihilated) ... cantaloupes are like pillows, and incense covers China". According to the above historical records and textual research, melon was widely planted in Xinjiang Autonomous Region at least 800 ~ 1700 years ago.