814 MUSKMELON. 



quantity of growth is giving a check to the fruit, not 

 unfrequently causing it to cease swelling, and it becomes 

 hard in the flesh ; fungoid germs fasten upon the exu- 

 dation, and the fruit decays when it should ripen. These 

 disasters are generally preventable by attending to the 

 thinning and stopping of the growths in time." 



Pollinating. The flowers must be pollinated by hand. 

 Melons are monoecious, that is, the sexes are borne 

 in separate flowers on the same plant. The first flowers 

 to open are always males or staminates, and it may be 

 two weeks after these first blossoms appear that the 

 females or pistillates begin to form. There is nearly al- 

 ways a much larger number of males than females, even 

 when the plant is in full bearing. Fig. 74 (page 213) is 

 a female or pistillate flower, natural size. It is at once 

 distinguished by the little melon, or ovary, which is 

 borne below the colored portion of the flower. The 

 male or staminate flower is seen in Fig. 75. It has no 

 enlargement or melon below, and the flower perishes 

 within a day or so after it opens. Pollination is per- 

 formed in the middle of the day, preferably when the 



house is dry and 

 the sun bright, 

 so that the pol- 

 len is easily de- 

 tached from the 

 male flower. A 

 male flower is 

 picked off, the 

 petals or leaves 

 stripped back, 

 and the central 



75- Staminate flower of melon. Full size. or pollen-bearing 



column is then inserted into a pistillate flower, and there 

 allowed to remain. That is, one male flower is used to 

 pollinate one female flower, unless there should happen 

 to be a dearth of male flowers, in which case two or 



