138 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



dayes in this Land, wherin although many have tried and 

 endeavoured to bring them to perfection, yet few have attained 

 unto it." The seeds were planted in April, in a hotbed, and 

 carefully covered with straw ; when they had sprung up they 

 were given an hour's sun in the morning, and re-covered, then, 

 when they "have gotten four leaves," are planted on a well- 

 manured sloping bank in a sunny sheltered place, and covered 

 with a pot, or some shelter, until they were well grown. Sir 

 Hugh Piatt writes, " When your mellons are as big as Tennis 

 balls, then if you nip off at a joynt, all the shoots that are 

 beyond them, the mellons will grow exceeding great." He 

 also gives a direction learned from " Mr. Nicholson Gardiner." 

 " Lay your young Mellons upon Ridge-tiles to keep them from 

 the ground, and for reflection," and he tells us that the seed 

 should be steeped in milk for twenty-four hours before sowing. 

 Parkinson says the best seed came from Spain, and not from 

 France, but some seed was saved in England. Gerard saw 

 some good melons at the " Queene's House at St. James," grown 

 by Master Fowle, and also "great plenty" at Lord Sussex's 

 at " Bermondsey by London." It was usual to eat them with 

 pepper and salt, and " to droun them in wine for feare of doing 

 more harme.""^ These "musk-melons" are Cucumis nielo, the 

 same as are now termed melons, and they were " of a russet 



colour and green underneath deep furrowed and ribbed . . 



the inward substance is yellow, which only is eaten." f " Melons 

 or pompions," include pumpkins and gourds of all kinds. 

 These were eaten especially by the poorer classes, cooked in 

 various ways. Parkinson says they eat as "a dainty dish," 

 pompions, the seeds taken out and filled with pippins, and 

 baked altogether. 



Vegetables then did not have at all the same relative value 

 as nowadays ; some which are now scarcely grown, such as 

 skirrets, holding a prominent place, while others were not so 

 much valued. The heading of a chapter in Hill's Gardener's 

 Labyrinth will illustrate this fact. " What care and skill is 

 required in the sowing and ordering of the Buckshorne, 



* Parkinson. f Ibid. 



