V. MELON. 



ground. Upon these walls a wooden coping is fixed, and 

 across this coping, the lights slide up and down. These 

 are very convenient places for melons j but, as they do 

 not enter into the plan of my garden, it would be useless 

 to take up the time of the reader with a more particular 

 description of them. When the fruit of the melon is per- 

 ceived to be fairly swelling, a piece of glass or of tile 

 should be laid under each fruit to keep it out of the dirt, 

 and, indeed, to add a little to the heat that it would receive 

 from the sunj for, melons require heat from the sun as 

 well as heat from the earth ; and, take what pains we will, 

 we have never fine melons in a shady or wet summer. As 

 to the sorts of melons, some are finer than others, and some 

 come into bearing sooner than others. In speaking of 

 sorts, I cannot do better than to take the list from the 

 Hortus Kewemis, written by Mr. AITON, gardener to the 

 King j for, surely, that which contents his Majesty, may- 

 very well content any of us. This list is as follows : Early 

 Con'aleupe, Early Leopard, Early Polignac, Early Romana, 

 Green-fleshed Netted, Green -Jleshed Rock, Bosses early Rock, 

 Black Rock, Silver Rock, Scar let -fleshed Rock. In America, 

 they divide the melons into two sorts which are wholly 

 distinct from each other : one they call the Musk Melon; 

 that is to say, any melon which belongs to the tribe of 

 those that we cultivate here, and they call these musk 

 melons because they have a musky smell. The other 

 species they call the Water Melon, which has no smell, 

 which.never turns yellow, which is always of a deep green, 

 in the inside of which, instead of being a fleshy pulp, is 

 a sort of pink-coloured snow, which melts in the mouth. 

 This melon very frequently weighs from twenty to forty 

 pounds, and is not deemed much of a fruit unless it 



