THE MELOX. 215 



riant in growth for the small space which is all that can be 

 allotted to them where artificial culture is required. Due 

 limits, however, must be observed ; for though seeds 40 

 years old have been known to vegetate and grow into 

 fruitful plants, their germination becomes doubtful if they 

 are kept for more than three or four years. Though 

 sometimes grown in the south of England under hand- 

 glasses, like cucumbers, they cannot generally be reared 

 in this country in the open air, since 65 is the least tem- 

 perature at which the seeds will germinate, and from 75 

 to 80 is needed before the fruit can be ripened. A shel- 

 tered hotbed, therefore, becomes here essential to their 

 existence. 



An annual plant, destined only to exist for the space 

 of a few months, yet to attain large dimensions in all its 

 parts, the growth of the melon is very rapid, the newly- 

 quickened seed soon sending forth tender succulent shoots, 

 which, as they speedily lengthen, develop numerous large, 

 alternately-disposed, lobed leaves, accompanied by spiral 

 tendrils ; and, in the course of the third month after sow- 

 ing, the pale yellow flowers begin to unfold their soft, 

 limp, five-cleft corollas, the males encircling three stamens, 

 on which appear the curiously arranged anthers, in the 

 form of serpentine lines waved up and down near their 

 summit, while the females are easily distinguished by the 

 green ovary swelling out below the blossom, the centre of 

 which is occupied by a short style with three thick stig- 

 mas. The male flowers generally appear first, but Dr. 

 Carpenter affirms that this matter is entirely governed 

 by the degree of warmth to which the plants are exposed, 

 and that if the proportion of heat greatly exceeds that of 

 light, male flowers are produced, whereas if these condi- 

 tions be reversed only female ones appear. In fine sum- 

 mer weather, when glasses can be left almost constantly 

 open, the breeze may waft pollen from this blossom to 

 that, or honey-seeking bees, brushing past the anthers of 

 one, may bear off the golden dust to deposit it again just 

 where it is needed, as they plunge among the stamens of 

 another ; and thus the flowers become fertilized, and the 

 fruit will " set" naturally. Our melon-growers, however, 



