472 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
{ December 19, 1878. 
cultivated twenty years ago than it is now, but there are signs ' 
of its returning to public favour. Native of North America.— 
R, D, TAyLor. 
CUCUMBERS AND MELONS. 
“BorH Cucumbers and Melons are given to degeneration,” 
is a remark often heard and seldom contradicted, but the cause 
of the evil does not appear manifest to all. Is it not a conse- 
quence of in-and-in breeding? A variety impregnated wholly 
by its own pollen for several consecutive generations results in 
enfeeblement of constitution and a consequent depreciation of 
produce. This is, I think, incontestable. Plants can only be 
kept healthy and capable of producing a maximum of produce 
of the greatest value by the introduction of fresh blood. 
crops there are degrees of excellence. To save seed from the 
superior plants is to secure a progeny of similar superiority, 
tending to still further improvement; seed of inferior plants 
affording plants correspondingly inferior. Negligence in the 
selection of parts for the continuation of plants leads also to 
degeneracy, as does also inferior culture, superior culture afford- | 
ing in many instances “ sports ” superior to the originals. 
Whatever is lost by in-and-in breeding may not in all in- 
stances be restored by fresh pollen, but much may be done by 
impregnating a weak plant with the pollen of one showing 
undue vigour ; the progeny will then be invigorated. Health 
and disease in plants are as much promoted by weakness as by | 
grossness arising from poverty of culture on the one hand and 
high culture on the other, and those results are transmitted by | 
the pollen. A variety inherently weak cannot be restored to 
vigour without a change of blood, and the nearer the species is 
approached in obtaining it the greater will be the vigour im- 
planted in the progeny. 
Cross-breeding has been carried out to such an extent in 
with the latter as former, as to be little less than in-and-in breed- 
ing owing to the slight variations in the plants operated with. 
The object in raising new varieties appears to be size, every- 
body seeking to have fruit longer than somebody else. No 
matter how gross a variety may be, it must be crossed with | 
another variety equally gross witha view to the securing of long 
Cucumbers, The questions of flavour and fruitfulness appear 
to be ignored, the chief aim apparently being the production of | 
big Cucumbers and monster Melons, Cucumbers and Melons 
producing large fruits are generally shy bearers, which shows 
that large stature and robustness result in constitutional 
sterility. This accounts for high-bred Cucumbers being shy 
seeders, and suggests the necessity not only of care being taken 
to keep the variety true, but of experiments being made to 
cross it with a dissimilar yet desirable variety in the hope of 
obtaining a fresh variety that will supplant both parents. In- 
and-in breeding may be carried to an extent frustrating the all- 
important object of reproduction, but comparatively sterile 
plants may usually be made to produce seeds by fertilising 
them with pollen from some of the more original types of the 
species. The more constitutionally hardy the female parent is 
the finer is the offspring. Therefore, in crossing Cucumbers 
or Melons robustness in the female should always be selected 
to impart any desired vigour to the progeny, and vice versa. 
If a green-flesh Melon, say Beechwood, be crossed with a 
scarlet-flesh—Read’s for instance, it does not follow that the 
progeny will be all after the male—i.., scarlet-tleshed, but a 
majority of the issue follow the male with some increase in 
the size of fruit, but the minority following the female are 
marked by still greater robustness of plant and increased size, 
and more prominent netting of fruit. This points to the 
wisdom of selecting robust hardy plants as seed-bearing parents, 
and high-bred plants for males. The former will tend to in- 
crease grossness and concomitant barrenness, not perhaps in 
fruitfulness but in seed-production, with no improvement of 
constitution. 
The crossing of Scarlet Gem Melon with Little Heath would 
not add anything to the constitution of the former; but cross 
Cantaloupe with Scarlet Gem, or Rock with Colston Basset, 
and a marked improyement is produced at once in the consti- 
tution of the progeny. By crossing this progeny with Moreton 
Hall or Read’s in one case, and Pine Apple or Golden Perfection 
in the other, improved flavour is approached with a certainty ; 
yet every approach to flavour results in the diminishing of the 
size of the fruit, for whatever may be shown to the contrary by 
the number of seedlings certificated of late years, I submit that 
there is not only an advance in size but a decided increase of 
In all | 
coarseness of flesh, with a lack of firmness or crispness of flesh 
and briskness of flavour. A majority of our present race of 
Melons are flat, lacking the tender melting flesh and sprightly 
: perfumed flavour of such kinds as possess them in the highest 
degree—viz., Egyptian, Pine Apple Gem, and Scarlet Gem. I 
shall possibly be considered as being extremely prejudiced 
against innovations. The fact that existent varieties are speedily 
superseded by seedlings is proof conclusive that their merits 
are of a transitory character. Without an influx of fresh blood 
the variety, whatever it be, soon begins to degenerate, and can 
only be kept up to a high standard by careful selection and 
superior culture. 
By directing attention to the wearing-out of old varieties my 
object is to direct attention to, and to suggest a remedy for 
that fell disease so fatal to Cucumbers and occasionally Melons. 
Of the disease I have had no experience, which I think is solely 
attributable to my practice, adding the new varieties as they 
are sent out and discarding the old, therefore operating only 
with fresh blood. What I have seen of the disease leads me to 
form the opinion that it is due to high breeding and repeated 
impregnation with pollen from the same plant. I have re- 
peatedly noticed that with a plant having the male and female 
organs in the same flower the potency of the pollen is more 
decided from another flower on the same plant, and more 
decided still in that taken froma different tree. The pollen of 
a weakly blossom is in effect very slight upon the pistil—often 
inert; but the pollen of the weakly blossom is more potent 
applied to the stigma of a gross blossom of a very vigorous 
tree, the pollen from the latter acting advantageously on the 
weaker blossom of the other tree. Weakness on the one hand 
and grossness on the other are thereby modified. In crossing 
Melons and Cucumbers I have noticed a similar coincidence. 
Very vigorous plants have corresponding blossoms male and 
: | female, and are not readily impregnated with pollen from the 
Cucumbers, also with Melons, but not to nearly the same extent | 
same plant, such plants being bad setters, a weakly plant not 
always setting fruit freely. In both instances foreign pollen 
generally secures a good set, and the nearer it is obtained to 
the species the more marked is the improvement of constitution 
of the progeny, increased hardiness as well as seed-productive- 
ness being promoted. 
The constitution of Cucumbers has been so weakened by in- 
and-in breeding as to result in barrenness, many of the high- 
bred sorts seeding very sparingly, some varieties not being 
continued true except by cuttings. If Iam warranted in the 
foregoing deductions, which are the results of experience, con- 
stitutional vigour can only be restored by a return to a parent 
nearer the species. We have, it is true, no want of luxuriance 
in the plants that give fruit comparable in size to hedge stakes, 
but such fruits are limited in number and produce few seeds. 
We have, too, varieties affording useful fruit plentifully, but 
these for the most part of the Sion House type have con- 
stitutions little better than the large-fruited class, and both 
types may be improved by judicious crossing. 
I have had the pleasure of trying three varieties all with 
admirable constitutions. They were kindly sent to me by the 
raiser, Colonel Taylor, Montrose, Weston Park, Bath. This 
gentleman, acting on the idea that fresh blood only was required 
to restore the constitution, selected Lord Kenyon’s Freebearer 
as the female, with, I think, Sion House as the male parent, 
the result being a hardy frame Cucumber 12 to 1S inches in 
length, with a short neck, deep green in colour, with few spines, 
remarkably free-bearing. It is superior to any variety of the 
same type in hardiness, productiveness, and quality. It ts 
named Montrose Seedling, coming neaiest to Duke of Edinburgh 
(Munro’s), but superior to that kind; in fact I consider it the 
best of the everyday Cucumbers for every purpose. Itsucceeds 
well in a frame without heat after the middle of May. 
No. 2 is from Lord Kenyon’s Freebearer crossed with Duke 
of Connaught (Sutton’s). In this we have the constitutional 
hardiness of the female parent, and a fruit as near between the 
two parents as possible, not a little of the vigour of the male 
being imparted to the offspring. Itis not so hardy as Mont- 
rose Seedling, not doing so well under frame culture, but is a 
paragon for house work, and will prove a powerful rival to 
Telegraph, which it much resembles, but is of much better 
flavour. It has a short handle, is straight and even, in shape 
like a gun barrel, deep green in colour with blue bloom, carry- 
ing the flowers well and with few spines, with length enough 
for the most fastidious, and a shy seeder. 
No. 3, Montrose Seedling crossed with Duke of Connaught. 
In this variety we haye the hardy constitution of the female 
without any of the grossness of the male parent, the free-bear- 
