THEORY OF VEGETATION 



surfaces to the light : and if, by any means, the position of the plant is 

 changed, the leaves, as long as they are young and vigorous, make efforts 

 to regain their proper position. But the extended branches of the melon 

 plant, particularly under glass, are slender and feeble ; its leaves are 

 broad and heavy, and its leaf-stalks long ; so that if the leaves be once 

 removed, either by the weight of water from the watering-pot, the hand 

 of the gardener in pruning or eradicating weeds, or any other cause, 

 from their proper position, they never regain it ; and in consequence, a 

 large portion of that foliage, which preceded, or was formed at the same 

 period with the blossoms, and which nature intended to generate sap to 

 feed the fruit, becomes diseased and sickly, and consequently out of office, 

 before the fruit acquires maturity. 



To remedy this defect, I placed my plants at greater distances from 

 each other than my gardener had previously done, putting a single plant 

 under each light, the glass of which was six feet long by four wide. 

 The beds were formed of a sufficient depth of rich mould to ensure 

 the vigorous growth of the plant : and the mould was,' as usual, covered 

 with brick-tiles, over which the branches were conducted in every 

 direction, so as to present the largest possible width of foliage to the 

 light. Many small hooked pegs, such as the slender branches of the 

 beech, the birch, and hazel, readily afford, had been previously provided; 

 and by these, which passed into the mould of the bed, between the tiles, 

 the branches of the plants were secured from being disturbed from their 

 first position. The leaves were also held erect, and at an equal distance 

 from the glass, and enabled, if slightly moved from their proper position, 

 to regain it. 



I, however, still found that the leaves sustained great injury from the 

 weight of the water falling from the watering-pot : and I therefore 

 ordered the water to be poured, from a vessel of a proper construction, 

 upon the brick-tiles, between the leaves, without at all touching them ; 

 and thus managed, I had the pleasure to see, that the foliage remained 

 erect and healthy. The fruit also grew with very extraordinary rapidity, 

 ripened in an unusually short time, and acquired a degree of perfection, 

 which I had never previously seen. 



As soon as a sufficient quantity of fruit (between twenty and thirty 

 pounds) on each plant is set, I would recommend the further production 

 of foliage to be prevented, by pinching off the lateral shoots as soon as 

 produced, wherever more foliage cannot be exposed to the light. No 

 part of the full-grown leaves should ever be destroyed before the fruit is 

 gathered unless they injure each other, by being too much crowded 



