58 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



turns dropsical, and either dies or is at- 

 tacked by serious disease. If a spell of 

 wet summer weather sets in, the best 

 thing that can be clone is to form a sort of 

 tent over each hillock, with three long 

 rods or poles, meeting at the top and 

 covered with mats or old sailcloth. The 

 mountain-shape alone of your melon-beds 

 ensures a. dry subsoil in ordinary seasons. 



It requires some practice to know 

 when a melon, arrived at ripeness, is fit- 

 test for table. The sorts vary a little in 

 this respect. When a melon is dead-ripe 

 it is generally too far gone ; the juice has 

 oozed out of the flesh into the middle of 

 the fruit, amongst the seed. It should be 

 taken while the juice is still retained in 

 the cells of the flesh. 



In frankness, I must state that this 

 experience has been gained on the contin- 

 ent ; but also in a latitude which, though 

 south of London, is north of the Isle of 

 Wight, with a ruder climate than that of 

 the south of England, and with no shelter 

 but Norway and Sweden from the icy 

 blasts of the North Sea, success has been 

 obtained in opposition to the prophecies 

 of neighbours, very stand-still folk, and 

 in spite of the remonstrances of gardeners, 

 who declared that out-door melons had 

 never been grown in that country, and 

 consequently never would. But one-third 

 of England might do the same ; the greater 

 length of the days northwards is a com- 

 pensation for the shorter summer. At 

 Ispahan, even, the melon does not find a 

 high temperature constantly maintained 

 without remission, like that which old- 

 school forcers aim at ; it has hot days and 

 cool nights. The night temperature of our 

 southern and midland counties, from the 

 middle of June till the middle of Septem- 

 ber, is sufficiently high. In fine summers, 



our days are hot enough for its prosperity. 

 In cold, wet summers, like those of 1838 

 and 1844, the melon is a failure all over 

 France, and therefore we ought not to be 

 discouraged by its fading in England in 

 such exceptional cases. 



The culture of the melon on hillocks 

 is the invention of Monsieur Loisel, the 

 director of the gardens in the domain of 

 Clermont-Tonnerre, and a member of the 

 Horticultural Society of Paris. His little 

 book on the subject (in French) is worth 

 consulting. But it was his lather who set 

 the first grand step, by asserting that the 

 melon plant ought not to be severely 

 primed, as is generally practised, but with 

 great forbearance. In consequence, he 

 gathered six or eight fruits from each 

 plant, wlnlst his neighbours only obtained 

 two or three. Loisel's treatise (now in its 

 third edition) has led to the out-door cul- 

 ture of the melon in the north of France, 

 where it was never attempted before. It 

 will surely have a fair trial in England 

 during the coming slimmer ; but, as the 

 whole secret lies, not in the lnllocks (upon 

 which Loisel insists so much, and which 

 are particularly adapted to the English 

 climate), but in the absence of sharp prun- 

 ing, and of steaming, and stifling, melons 

 may be successfully planted in the flat, 

 open ground, well dug and manured, or 

 on sloping beds ; of course, in the sunniest 

 nooks, and well sheltered from high winds, 

 which smash the foliage, and cause irre- 

 parable damage. Those who are set up 

 with frames and hotbeds may also apply 

 the principle, by treating the plants as 

 usual (save the pinching and the pruning), 

 gradually increasing their exposure to air, 

 and removing the lights altogether towards 

 the end of June. E. S. Dixon, M.A. 



Ghiines, Pas-de- Calais. 



V^.V"~~-^~^"_"~"_-V^-,>VV".>'i^-~-^'i ! &<i < l><V^ 



GRAFTING THE CAMELLIA. 



Camellias are now frequently grafted in 

 a manner first practised in Belgium, but 

 afterwards greatly improved in the nur- 

 sery of M. Soulange Bodin, at Fromont, 

 near Paris, and which has the advantage 

 of producing flowering plants much sooner 

 than by any other plan. This mode of 

 grafting, which is called graffe etonffee, 

 may be practised at any season, and on a 

 stock of any age, from the cutting of a 

 year old to the long-established plant, 

 provided it be healthy, and of sufficiently 

 small size to be grown in a pot. There 

 are two modes of performing this kind of 



grafting, the first which is called la graffe 

 etouffee en fente, and which is a kind of 

 cleft grafting. The head of the stock is 

 cut off close to a leaf, which has a strong 

 healthy bud on its axil. The cut i3 made 

 sloping upwards to the leaf ; and on the 

 preservation of this leaf and bud, a great 

 part of the success of the operation de- 

 pends. The stock is then split, in face of 

 the leaf and bud, to a depth equal to two- 

 thirds of its thickness, and the scion, 

 which has been previously cut with a sharp 

 knife into the shape of a wedge terminat- 

 ing in a narrow point, is inserted. The 



