JacquirHs Monogt^aphie complete du Melon. 359 



which is usually complained of, will, by the aid of judicious 

 pruning, enable the plants to bear fruit as soon as that from 

 older seed, while the fruit itself is finer. At a future time I 

 purpose to enlarge on this and other points, but at present it 

 would be to diverge too far from my course, and would 

 occupy your pages too largely. 



The necessity of absolutely preventing the possible access 

 of others, in order to preserve a valued variety unmixed, is 

 not sufficiently insisted on ; a fault which is common to every 

 work on the subject. It is not enough, to comply with the 

 admonition here given, to select a fruit of which to preserve 

 the seed, that may happen to be the most perfect type of the 

 variety ; it is quite essential, also, that the blossom of that 

 fruit should have been fecundated solely by the pollen of its 

 own kind. To effect this, I would recommend, for general 

 adoption, a practice I have myself found very useful, indeed 

 indispensable, where many different sorts are grown at the 

 same time; it is this : to cover with thin gauze, previously to 

 their expansion, two, three, or more blossoms that appear 

 healthy and likely to set. When in bloom, the anther of a 

 male blossom, the petals being removed, should be applied to 

 the stigma of the female, and allowed to remain there; the 

 gauze should not be taken off until the flower is quite 

 withered, and a peg with a label should be stuck near, to 

 mark the fruit so impregnated. The gauze should, in like 

 manner, be employed when it is desired to effect any par- 

 ticular hybridisation. It appears to me that M. Jacquin has 

 attributed that to climate and season which is, in fact, due, in 

 most instances, to intermixture by fecundation, when he 

 ascribes to that cause the change from green to red flesh, 

 the accession of netting, of odour, &c. 



Division S. is occupied by details on the care necessary for 

 melons, under bell or hand glasses, planted on " couches 

 sourdes;" that is, holes dug in the ground, filled with 

 manure, and covered with good earth, called, I believe, by 

 our gardeners, blind beds; and also the modes of procedure 

 adopted at Honfleur, Lisieux, Lyons, and different parts of 

 France, all described by practical cultivators resident in the 

 various places. Division 4. culture entirely in the open air. 

 Division 5. is a recapitulation of the most important points : 

 contains observations on the grafting of the melon (a curious 

 but troublesome process, which I have found unattended by 

 any equivalent advantages), and concludes by an estimate of the 

 cost of each melon, either of the spring or summer crop, when, 

 as the reward of so much labour and attention, it at length, in 

 all its beauty and fragrance, graces the Amphytrion's table. 



A A 4 



