LUTHER BURBANK 



and severally, the methods of the plant developer 

 when applied to garden vegetables, and as offering 

 interesting possibilities of development for the 

 amateur gardener. 



THE MELON FAMILY 



At the outset we may consider the melons, 

 partly because the product that they offer the 

 gardener may be said to occupy an intermediate 

 place between the fruits proper, as grown in the 

 orchard, and what are commonly spoken of as 

 garden vegetables. The melons are, indeed, fruits 

 of a distinctive order. They seem of unique type 

 to us merely because our point of fact is that of 

 residents of a temperate zone. In tropical regions, 

 fruits like the melons abound, the family to which 

 the melon belongs being a very extensive one, 

 represented in the aggregate by several hundred 

 species. 



The most generally cultivated member of the 

 melon family in the ordinary kitchen garden is 

 doubtless the form known as the cucumber. The 

 ordinary cucumber has long been under cultivation 

 and has been greatly improved, especially in 

 Europe. It has been made to take on various 

 forms of fruit, and the best varieties have been 

 practically relieved from the spines with which 

 the plant was originally endowed, and partially 

 also of the seed. 



[42] 



