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The Cultivation of the Melon in France. 

 — 'I'he finest kind of this fruit is the Cantaloup, 

 and is brought to great perfection in the environs 

 of Paris, where it is produced in immense quanti- 

 ties. It is covered with tubercles or warts, from 

 which appearances the French give it the distinc- 

 tive soubriquet of " Melon guteuz." This deli- 

 cious fruit averages 7 or 8, to even 10 lbs. in 

 weight, and exceeds 2 feet in cireuniferenoe. The 

 finest melons could be bought in Paris tiiis season 

 for 15d. and 20d. The method adopted by the 

 best growers near Paris, among whom may be 

 named Messieurs Fran(,^ois and Decouple, is as fol- 

 lows: When the young plant has formed its se- 

 cond or third leaf beyond the cotyledon, the stem 

 is pinched off, or '' stopped." The eliect of this 

 is to make it throw out two lateral branches, 

 wliioh again are stopped beyond their sixth or 

 seventh leaf. The plant now comes into bloom, 

 and as soon as the fruit is set, two, or at the most 

 three, are selected as the most promising, and all 

 subsequent ones are pinched off as they form, so 

 as only to have this limited number on one plant, 

 to preserve its vigor and increase the sap. The 

 seeds of this melon are found to veijetate. even 

 when transmitted to the East and West Indies, 

 taken from the fruit as brought to fable. They 

 should be merely wiped and dried, but not washed. 

 The French gardeners follow the same system in 

 growing the immense orange-coloured pumpkin, 

 or " Potiron," so extensively used to make vege- 

 table soup on " meagre days." When it is de- 

 sired to produce very large pumpkins, only one 

 fruit is retained on each plant, all the others being 

 suppressed. It may be well to mention, as the 

 result of careful observation, that the clir late of 

 Paris enjoys a far greater portion of solar heat 

 and light than the meiidian of London. Gurdeii- 

 ers' Chronicle. [We tasted these melons in Paris 

 the past summer, and found them good, but much 

 inferior to the " Citron Melons" of New- York. 

 Ed. Hort.] 



Roses in Pots. — The treatment of roses in 

 pots, such as China, Perpetual, Bourbon, &c., 

 about which a correspondent inquires, must be 

 according to the time he requires them to bloom 

 in his fvi'pcn-house. Tastes differ; and we ought 

 to be sure of our premises before we pronounce 

 another man's taste to be bad, but we would pre- 

 fer dwarfs trained in a conical pyramidal form to 

 our correspondent's standards. We shall at pre- 

 sent confine ourselves to the questions proposed, 



leaving some other matters about roses for the 

 green-house for another period, merely premising 

 that to have plants of roses in good bloom in the 

 winter months (and for this purpose the China and 

 Bourbon group are about the best) the house must 

 resemble a cool stove rather than a mere hyberna- 

 tory for plants; in other words, the temperature 

 should be from 50° to 55* instead of from 35° to 

 45°, and even then advantage should be taken of 

 sunshine to raise the temperature at least five de- 

 grees more, or the flowers will not expand freely* 

 True, you may gather roses out of doors in the 

 commencement of winter when the thermometer 

 is lower than the lowest point indicated, but then 

 you have the assistance of energy stored up in the 

 plant, and which you cannot reckon on after, say 

 from the month of December to February. 



Now, the first question with respect to these 

 roses in pots is, '' Ought I to repot them ? If so, 

 when? and should I shake any of the mould from 

 them?" The best time to repot such roses is 

 after they have finished blooming; and If you 

 have a succession of roses, there will thus be a 

 succession of potting periods. There is a pecu- 

 liarity in the mode ol' growth of roses in pots that 

 renders this necessary. Whether upon their own 

 roots or budded, the "best roots have always a ten- 

 dency to get to the bottom of the pots; and when 

 plunged, unless great care is taken, they will get 

 out " by hook or crook" at the bottom of the pot, 

 and then when you raise them up you lose all the 

 finest roots, instead of moving them within the 

 pots where they would do good service. In pot- 

 ting, therefore, it is not only advisable to get rid 

 of as much as possible of the old soil, but the 

 stronger roots should be shortened that they may 

 produce more middle-sized ones, and these in pot- 

 tiniT should be spread out, and receive an upward 

 direction, and this should be encouraged also by 

 surface mulchin";. The kinds referred to by our 

 correspondent are many of them constant bloom- 

 ers, and with moderate care they will easily be 

 made to carry a few flowers ; but when fine mass- 

 es of bloom at particular periods are wanted more 

 attention is required. Here we think it would be 

 better to introduce our correspondent's second 

 question, " When should I prune them?" because 

 t!ie time of doing so has much to do with the suc- 

 cess; as here, as well as in most other cases, both 

 processes should not take place simultaneously, 

 but advantage should be taken of the shoot's own 

 leaves to form fresh roots, and these when vigorr 

 ous should be emuloyed in forcing vigorous young 



