-i8 7 - 



These figures are full of significance. They show that the 

 staminate, or male flowers, are more numerous in each case than 

 the pistillate, or fertile flowers, ranging from 6 to 24 times as many. 

 They show that the pistillate flowers make their appearance later 

 in the season — from five days in the cucumber to thirty days in 

 one of the musk-melons. They also show that as a rule the stam- 

 inate flowers continue to appear later in fall than the pistillate. 

 Musk-melon No. 1 was a weaker plant than the others, and it be- 

 gan to fail by the middle of September. It is, therefore, instruct- 

 ive to observe that in this plant the proportion of pistillate flowers 

 was the smallest, and that they appeared later and ceased earlier 

 than the other plants. And the figures illustrate the common ob- 

 servation that the cucumber is more precocious than the melons. 

 The figures show forcibly the necessity of starting melons early in 



our short seasons. 



L. H. BAILEY. 



