October 7, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



405 



the end), green-fleshed and well flavored. Like all large 

 melons, it had a conspicuous fibre. The way to grow the Cas- 

 sabah is to keep some of the seeds of the first year until the 

 variety degenerates or runs out, and then to plant some of the 

 seeds to start the variety a second time. To save the seeds of 

 a good cantaloupe precipitate them in water, pour off all the 

 membrane and light seeds, rub the heavy seeds in a napkin 

 and dry in the house. Preserve the seeds in a bottle and label 

 carefully. Such seeds will germinate after a number of years. 

 A good melon will yield 500 to 600 assorted seeds that ought 

 all to grow. 



The Taylor Cantaloupe of Persia was called after a Mr. Taylor 



particularly adapted (o its propagation. It soon degenerated 

 in New Jersey where it was grown. 



I have stated that this was a conspicuously poor year for 

 Cantaloupes, and yet I had sent me the largest-seeded and 

 finest hybrid melon I have ever seen — the handsomest large 

 melon and the beau ideal of a green-fleshed melon. I have 

 never seen as fine flesh in a melon six and a half inches long, 

 although I have in fruits of half a pound in weight. This can- 

 taloupe was egg-shaped and densely netted all over (it also 

 grew on its end). It was ripe to the rind, which was grass- 

 green in color, and had a wonderfully fine smell and taste. 

 Such a growth would be a great acquisition to the horticul- 



Fig. 53- — Diervilla Japonica. — See page 404. 



who was many years in the State Department at Washing- 

 ton. He distributed the seeds, and the variety was grown for 

 the market for more than thirty years. It was a large cylin- 

 drical melon, densely netted, golden when ripe, green- 

 fleshed (sometimes butter-colored), good-flavored, and 

 weighed up to twenty-five pounds. I obtained the seed of one 

 that was nineteen inches long and weighed nineteen pounds. 

 The variety had then been grown some twenty-five years. It 

 appears to have quite run out, or to have degenerated mate- 

 rially. When of large size it was a conspicuous object on a 

 dinner table. The soil of Washington seems to have been 



turist, provided the seed could be depended on to produce its 

 kind. Unfortunately, the hybrid, which weighed seven and a 

 half pounds and was one and three-quarter inches thick in the 

 flesh, had a very large share of unfertilized seeds and was 

 alone in its growth. The seed that produced it was from a 

 Louisiana Acme, which yielded several hybrids. An attempt will 

 be made by several growers to reproduce this distinctive round 

 hybrid, which has stellate markings in its coarse netting. It is 

 particularly conspicuous in its thick flesh all around, except at 

 the stem end and its very small cavity. 

 Philadelphia, Pa. Robert P. Harris. 



