304 APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES. 



bringing the cultivation of the plants to a state 

 of great perfection, he succeeded completely in ren- 

 dering the original quality hereditary, so long as 

 those precautions were observed. No man was more 

 successful in the cultivation of the Melon than Mr. 

 Knight ; and it is in the memory of many persons, 

 that the quality of his Sweet Melons of Ispahan has 

 very rarely been equalled. The peculiar methods 

 that he adopted appear to have been the complete 

 and most careful preservation of the leaves from 

 injury of whatever kind, the full exposure of their 

 surface to light, and the augmentation of the ordinary 

 warmth of a Melon bed by availing himself of the 

 heat reflected from brick tiles with which his bed 

 was paved. To such an extent was his care of the 

 leaves carried, that he would not allow even the 

 watering to be performed " over-head," but he caused 

 his gardener to pour water, from a vessel of proper 

 construction, upon the brick tiles between the leaves, 

 without touching them. (See various papers upon 

 the Melon in the Horticultural Transactions^ and espe- 

 cially that in vol. vii. p. 584.) 



While, however, such are the general principles 

 upon which the preservation of the peculiar qualities 

 of the many races of cultivated annuals necessarily 

 depends, it must be confessed that, according to 

 report, there are circumstances upon which science 

 can throw no light, and which, if true, must depend 

 upon conditions as yet unsuspected to exist. Of this 

 class is the following, respecting the Brussels Sprouts 

 Cabbage, given upon the authority of M. Van Mons. 



