MELON 



MELOTHRIA 



2033 



adapted for shipment but are ideal for home use. The 

 commercial melon is one that has good shipping qual- 

 ity, a firm not too thin rind, of a variety in which the 

 melons run uniform in size, and of a weight ranging 

 from twenty to thirty pounds. The variety must also 

 be productive, of fair quality, and medium early. A 

 few sorts worthy of a place in the garden for home use 

 are Mclver, Florida Favorite, Kleckley Sweets, Brad- 

 ford, Long White Icing, and Sugar Loaf. Those most 

 popular as shipping melons are Kolb Gem, Duke Jones, 

 Pride of Georgia, or Jones, Mammoth Ironclad, and 

 Dixie. 



Seed-production. 



The production of seed has been largely confined to 

 the new prairie breakings of western Kansas and 

 Oklahoma, where a crop can be grown very cheaply. 

 It is interesting to note that the wild animals, notably 

 coyotes, often destroy a planting, so that few fruits are 

 left for seed. The melons grown for seed are pulped 

 in machines devised for the purpose. These machines 

 separate the rind and pulp from the seeds and juice. 

 The mass of seeds and juice is allowed to ferment for 

 one or a few days, when the seed is washed and spread 

 on wire screens for drying. When the seed is thoroughly 

 dry it should be run through a fanning-mill to drive 

 off melon fragments and light seed, when it is ready for 

 market. A crop of seed is rarely planted by a farmer 

 without a contract with a seedsman, who agrees to 

 take all or part of the crop at a stipulated price. 



In practically all sections of the Unites States where 

 field corn can be successfully grown, the watermelon 

 can be depended upon to mature a crop sufficient to 

 justify including it in the home-garden. While it can 

 be grown on a wide variety of soils by giving them 

 special preparation, it nevertheless grows best on rich 

 sand}-, or loamy soils. The prairie soils of the corn-belt 

 as well as the glacial-drift soils of New York can be 

 successfully used for the garden culture of the crop. 



The watermelon is tender to frost, and as it makes its 

 most rapid growth during the warm season, it should 

 not be planted in cold soil or before the danger of frosts 

 has passed. A safe rule for most sections is to plant ten 

 days to two weeks later than corn. 



The few hills of watermelons necessary to supply 

 the needs of the average family should be prepared 

 with special care. The seed-bed should be deep and 

 the hills fertilized with manure or compost which will 

 tend to accelerate the growth of the plants. No better 

 use of hog- or chicken-manure can be made than in the 

 preparation of a compost for watermelons. The hills 

 should be given ample distance 7 or 8 feet each way 

 and the seeds should be scattered ten or twelve over 

 an area about 1 foot square, and covered with about 

 1 inch of soil. 



The young plants will require protection from 

 insects; the use of mosquito-netting, before noted, 

 will prove as inexpensive and as effective as any 

 method yet devised. 



After all danger of losing the stand of plants, either 

 by frost or pests, has passed, the population of each 

 hill should be reduced to three or four of the most 

 vigorous plants. From this period on, care to prevent 

 weed-growth should give satisfactory results providing 

 a sort adapted to the region and to home use has been 

 chosen. L. C. CORBETT. 



MELON, Papaw: Carica Papaya. M. Shrub: Solarium murica- 

 tum. Chinese Preserving M. : Benincasa. 



MELOTHRIA (probably a name for a bryony-like 

 plant ; melon is Greek for apple, which may refer to the 

 shape of the fruit). Cucurbitaceae. Slender herbaceous 

 vines, climbing or trailing, annual or perennial, with 

 small yellow or white flowers and sometimes attractive 

 little fruits, found in warmer parts of the world. 



Plants with simple tendrils at the axils and very 



129 



small monoecious, direcious or polygamous fls., the 

 sterile usually in corymbs or racemes, the fertile solitary 

 and often slender-stalked : Ivs. entire, lobed or divided : 

 fls. white or yellow; sepals 5; corolla 5-lobed, campanu- 

 late; stamens in sterile fls. 3 or 5, more or less connate 

 by the anthers, in the fertile fls. reduced to rudiments: 

 fr. a small pulpy pendulous berry, with usually many 

 flat horizontal seeds. Species perhaps 70, widely dis- 

 tributed, a few of them native from Pa. and Fla. to 

 Texas. 



Four kinds appear to be ha the trade, M. scabra, 

 M. japonica, M. maderaspatana and M. punctata, the 

 last being perhaps the best. These are slender but rapid- 

 growing half-hardy annual climbers, which may be 

 grown indoors in winter, but preferably outdoors in 

 summer for covering unsightly objects. They are 

 attractive in fruit. 



Cogniaux (in DC. Mon. Phan., Vol. 3, 1881) makes 

 three sections of the genus. M. scabra, M. pendida, and 

 M. japonica, belong to the first, M. punctata to the 

 second, and M. maderaspatana to the third. M. punc- 

 tata has sensitive tendrils. 



Section I. EUMELOTHRIA. Fls. usually monoecious, 

 males mostly racemose and females solitary; anthers 

 subsessile: fr. mostly with long and slender peduncles; 

 seeds usually not margined and smooth. 



Section II. SOLENA. Fls. mostly dioecious, males 

 corymbose; anthers borne on rather long filaments, the 

 connective not produced: fr. mostly short-peduncled; 

 seeds mostly margined and smooth. 



Section III. MUKIA. Fls. monoecious, males clus- 

 tered and females solitary; anthers subsessile, the con- 

 nective apiculate: fr. subsessile; seeds margined, usually 

 pitted. 



scabra, Naudin. Sts. more or less hairy: Ivs. rigid, 

 ovate-oblong or somewhat triangular-hastate, acute or 

 short-acuminate, scabrous: tendrils filiform, short: fls. 

 small, the masculine racemes 5-7-fld. and equaling the 

 petiole; anthers roundish, with a wide connective, the 

 cells straight, not plicate: fr. ovoid or ovoid-oblong, 

 obtuse, 3-celled, rather large (1 in. long, ^in. thick), 

 with broad parallel stripes of white and green. Mex. 

 R.H. 1901, p. 43. 



pendula, Linn. Creeping or scandent, much-branched 

 root-perennial, the st. glabrous and shining: Ivs. sub- 

 orbicular-cordate, acute or obtuse, hirsute becoming 

 scabrous, often deeply 5-lobed, the lobes obtuse: male 

 racemes 3-7-fld., usually shorter than the petioles; 

 corolla yellow, the segms. obovate: fr. ellipsoid, to J^in. 

 long, the seeds obovate and whitish. Pa. to Fla. and 

 La. and Mex. M. pendula, M. scabra and M. punctata 

 may be confused in horticultural literature. 



japonica, Maxim. Lvs. ovate - triangular, emargi- 

 nate at base, scabrous above, nearly smooth beneath, 

 entire or shallowly 3-lobed: male fls. solitary; anthers 

 suborbicular, not appendaged at apex: fr. ovoid-sub- 

 globose, the seeds usually marginless. Japan. 



punctata, Cogn. (Brydnia punctata, Thunb. Zeh- 

 neria scabra, Sond. Pildgyne sudvis, Schrad.). Sts. 

 glabrous at maturity, angled: Ivs. membranous, cor- 

 date, angled or slightly 3-5-lobed, white-spotted and 

 somewhat scabrous above, pilose, short-hairy or sca- 

 brous below, margin remotely denticulate: fr. brown, 

 lightly pitted, about 3 lines thick"; seeds small, about 2 

 lines long, strongly compressed. S. Afr. R.H. 1900, p. 

 661. Intro. 1890 by Henderson & Co. as the oak- 

 leaved climber. Melothria punctata is a beautiful climb- 

 ing herbaceous perennial, better known as Pilogyne 

 suavis, and sometimes called Zehneria suavis. Even 

 when protected, it is too tender to stand the northern 

 winters. It blooms in clusters; fls. small, white and 

 star-shaped, with a strong musk fragrance: Ivs. green, 

 small and glossy. Being a very rapid grower, it is 

 desirable for covering verandas or for house cult. It 



