THE MELON. 689 



Green Hoosainee. — One of the best for this climate', and 

 bears well. Fruit egg-shaped, of medium size, skin light green, 

 netted. Flesh pale greenish white, tender and abounding with 

 sugary, highly perfumed juice. Seeds large. 



Sweet Ispahan. — The most delicious of all melons. Fruit 

 large oval ; skin nearly smooth, deep sulphur colour. Flesh 

 greenish white, unusually thick, crisp, and of the richest and 

 most sugary flavour. Ripens rather late. 



Large Germek. — Early, good bearer, and very excellent. 

 Fruit of large size, roundish, flattened at the ends, and ribbed, 

 skin green, closely netted. Flesh greenish, firm, juicy, rich and 

 high flavoured. 



Besides the foreo-oino; there are Winter Melons from the 

 South of Europe, very commonly cultivated in Spain, which, if 

 suspended in a dry room, may be kept till winter. The Green 

 Valencia and the Dampsha are the three principal sorts ; they 

 are oval, skin netted, flesh white, sugary and good. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



The AVater-Melon. 



Cticurbita citrullus, L. Citcurbitacece^ of botanists. 

 Pasteur, of the French ; Wasser Melone, Grerman ; Gocomero, Italian. 



The Water-Melon is a very popular and generally cultivated 

 fruit in this country. The vine is a training annual of the most 

 vigorous growth, and the fruit is very large, smooth, and green, 

 with a red or yellow core. Though far inferior to the melon in 

 richness, its abundant, cooling juice renders it very grateful and 

 refreshing in our hot midsummer days. Immense fields of the 

 water-melon are raised in New Jersey and Long Island, and 

 their culture is very easy throughout all the middle and southern 

 states. 



The cultivation of the water-melon is precisely similar to that 

 of the melon, except that the hills must be eight feet apart. 

 The finest crops we have ever seen, were grown upon old pieces 

 of rich meadow land, the sod well turned under with the plough 

 at the last of April, and the melons planted at once. 



The following are its best varieties. 



I.Imperial. — A remarkably fine flavoured and very productive 

 sort, from the Mediterranean. Fruit of medium size, nearly 

 round. Skin pale green and white, marbled, rind remarkably 

 thin, flesh solid to the centre, light red, crisp, rich, and high 

 flavoured. Seeds quite small, reddish brown. 



2. Carolina. — The large common variety. Fruit very large, 



