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dew, which should be of a fine red colour. 

 This fruit is principally used at desserts in 

 England, and eaten with sugar, ginger, pep- 

 per or salt, agreeable to the taste, while in 

 France it is chiefly served up at dinner, as a 

 sauce for boiled meats. Miller says, " the 

 seeds should not be sown before they are 

 three years old, but not older than six;" 

 although we read, in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, of melons being raised from seeds 

 that were forty-three years old. Melon-seeds 

 are cooling and diuretic : they are anodyne ; 

 and were formerly used to take off stranguries 

 occasioned by blisters; but sweet almonds 

 are now preferred. 



Pliny writes, that " melons, being eaten 

 as meat, cool the body, and make it soluble : 

 the fleshy substance of them applied to the 

 eyes assuages pain, and restraineth the wa- 

 terish and rheumatic flux. The root heals 

 wens or ulcers; and being dried, stops 

 vomits :" it was also used by the Romans in 

 washing-balls and soap, as a good scourer. 



The water-melon, or cucurbita citullus, 

 is a fruit greatly appreciated in Egypt, 

 China, the East Indies, and other hot cli- 

 mates, where it is cultivated to a great 

 extent on account of it's grateful coolness 

 and delicious flavour; and the flesh of it is 



