12 



CUCURBITACEjE. IV. CUCUMIS. 



veniently walked under, to discover the appearance of red 

 spiders or other noxious insects ; and by this method two, and 

 even three crops may be obtained in one season. Being so 

 liable to burst, Mr. Knight raised the points of the fruit higher 

 than the stems, and not one failed to ripen in a perfect state ; 

 they were found to ripen very well hanging perpendicularly, but 

 the Ispahan grew very deformed. 



Late crop on old hot-beds. To ripen melons, not earlier than 

 the month of August, M'Phail " generally made beds of dung 

 which had first been used for linings to the early cucumber and 

 melon-beds. For this purpose, this kind of dung is better than 

 new dung, because it does not heat violently, and for a consider- 

 able time keeps its heat. Leaves of trees make very good 

 melon-beds, but they do not produce heat enough alone for 

 linings ; but of whatever materials melon-beds be made, the 

 air in the frames among the plants should be kept sweet and 

 strong, otherwise the plants will not grow freely. It may be 

 known whether the air be sweet or whether it be not, by putting 

 the head in under the lights and smelling it. But it frequently 

 happens to be difficult to bring dung-beds into a requisite state 

 of kindliness for these delicate plants, for if the dung by any 

 means get and retain too much water, before its noxious 

 vapours pass off by evaporation, it will stagnate and become 

 sour, and until these pernicious qualities be removed, which 

 requires time and patience, the plants will not grow kindly ; and 

 besides this, although corrupted, stinking air hinders the growth 

 of plants of the melon kind, it greatly promotes the health and 

 forwards the breeding of different kinds of insects, which feed 

 upon and otherwise hurt fruits and plants, and esculent veget- 

 ables of various kinds." 



A method of growing the melon, adopted by Mr. Lovell, (Card, 

 mag. 7. p. 461.) varies in one or two very essential points 

 from any that he has seen practised ; first in well bedding and 

 firmly rooting the plants to support a good crop of fruit ; second 

 in early setting and preserving the first fruit, and forcing the 

 whole of the plants luxuriantly through the whole of the period 

 necessary for their maturity. To effect this he prepares his bed 

 with dung well watered and fermented, or tan, not wishing such 

 a strong heat as for cucumbers. He sows his seeds in pots, 

 in which the plants remain until they are turned into the hills, 

 leaving only 3 plants in each pot. These he places in the dung, 

 in order to start them as soon as the bed is made up, unless 

 there should be another bed in use at the same time. As soon 

 as the second rougli leaf appears, he puts a hill of good melon 

 soil under each light, composed of good loam and turf, adding 

 a sixth part of good rotten dung, well mixed with the spade, 

 but not sifted. This he waters if dry, and treads in the 

 hills firmly, making a hole in the centre, and turning out a 

 pot of plants with the ball entire into each hole. Should the 

 weather be very warm, he waters them overhead abundantly, 

 and in the space of a fortnight they will have grown to four 

 or five joints each : he then stops them down to three joints. 

 By this time the heat of the bed will have become reduced to 

 such a temperature as to allow of moulding up the plants, well 

 heading in and watering as you proceed. As the plants will 

 at this time be strongly rooted, and in vigorous growth, in the 

 course of three days they will have pushed a strong shoot from 

 each of the three eyes in a horizontal direction, and they will 

 seldom fail of showing fruit at the first joint ; you may rely at 

 least on two out of three of these fruits setting. Before the 

 fruit comes to blossom, the bed must be covered 1^ inch thick 

 with dry sand, but mould will do, and do not water the bed 

 any more for at least 3 weeks. This prevents the newly 

 formed fruit from turning yellow and damping off. All shoots 

 that appear, except the three above mentioned, must be removed. 

 As these shoots will show fruit at the first or second joint, if 



such fruit be set and taken care of, it will be three parts grown 

 before the vines will have reached the outside of the bed, arriv- 

 ing at perfection in nearly half the time it would have done if 

 the vines had been left in confusion. Particular care must be 

 taken in pruning, never to stop the three shoots that bear the 

 fruit, nor yet the lateral ones produced from the same joint as 

 the fruit. These lateral shoots will show fruit at the first joint, 

 which fruit must be preserved until the other is swelling, then 

 take off this lateral shoot, but do not stop the vine. But should 

 any accident happen to the other fruit, the shoot bearing it 

 must be taken off, and the lateral shoot treated as a main one, 

 when the fruit on it will swell accordingly ; and all the laterals 

 that spring from the main shoot must be stopped, leaving one 

 joint and leaf only. 



On the cultivation of the melon. 3. Holland (Gard. mag. 7. 

 p. 575.) plants off his seedlings singly in 60-sized pots, and 

 when sufficiently advanced in growth they are stopped so near 

 the seed-leaf, as only to admit of them throwing out 2 lateral 

 shoots, and when these principal leaders extend to 2 or 3 joints, 

 they are finally planted out into frames or pits, having the bot- 

 tom heat arranged according to the advanced state of the spring 

 months. Five melons were produced by a plant set in the 

 centre of a two-light frame in the beginning of May, upon an 

 old bed that had been previously employed for raising radishes. 

 A dung lining was added to the back and one end of the frame, 

 which was all the artificial heat the plant received, one vine 

 was trained to the back and the other to the front of the frame. 

 His practice is never to stop the vines until they have extended 

 as far as their confinement will permit, and the laterals from the 

 two leading vines, as they advance in growth, are trained to the 

 right and left over the bed with neat pegs, and every fruit blos- 

 som, as it expands, is carefully impregnated and placed upon a 

 tile under the shade of a neighbouring leaf. In a day or two, 

 or as soon as he thinks the fruit will set, he stops the vine at 

 the first or second joint beyond it. In this way he proceeds, 

 in setting all the fruit he can, until the surface of the bed is 

 covered with foliage, which is never deranged more than can be 

 avoided. While the fruit is setting, he gives air very freely, 

 sometimes he draws the lights quite off for a few hours on sunny 

 days, and he also, by applying or withholding heat or water, 

 endeavours to keep them in a state betwixt luxuriance and de- 

 bility, for in either extreme they will not set well. Having 

 advanced thus far, he commences swelling them off. He begins 

 this with pinching off all the ends of the lateral shoots that 

 have not already been stopped to assist the young fruit. He 

 now gives no more air than will prevent the sun from scorching 

 their leaves. He looks over them every morning, and takes off 

 all the blossoms as they appear, and stops every young shoot 

 back to one joint above that of the vine which produces it. He 

 watches over them every afternoon in fine weather, and before 

 the sun has quite left the frame, he syringes or waters them all 

 over, leaves, fruit, and all, and shuts down the glasses for the 

 night. He always prefers performing this while the departing 

 rays of the sun have sufficient strength to raise a sweet vaporous 

 heat of about 90, which serves them to feast upon long after 

 the sun has disappeared. A few days of such treatment will 

 determine which fruit will take the lead in swelling off, out of 

 which he selects 2 or 3 to each plant, according to the sort, 

 and all the rest he cuts away. As the fruit advances in growth, 

 it is necessary at intervals to turn them a little on the tiles, to 

 prevent them from growing flat, and discolouring on one side, 

 and also from rotting. When they have attained as large a size 

 as he thinks the sort will admit, he leaves off watering, and 

 again gives all the air he can, by taking the lights entirely off 

 when the weather is favorable ; and if the season is not too 

 far advanced, he leaves them to ripen without any other assist- 



