OF TEMPERATURE. 79 



the small space in which the Melon can be cultivated, 

 under the artificial circumstances required in this 

 country. 



105. As both fruit and seeds are maintained at the 

 expense of the leaves, the destruction of the former, 

 when young, will enable the latter to store up against 

 a succeeding season, for the support of future flowers, 

 all that organisable matter which the fruits and seeds 

 destroyed would have otherwise consumed.* 



CHAPTER VII. 



OF TEMPERATURE. 



Limits of Temperature endurable by Plants. — Effects of 

 a too Jidgh Temperature — of a too low Temperature. 

 — Frost. — Alternations of Temperature. — Day and 

 Night. — Winter and Summer. — Temperature of 

 the Earth and Atmospliere. 



106. The extreme limits of temperature which 



* When any young trees or plants show forth frnit they are 

 usua'ly looked upon with great satisfaction, and allowed to mature 

 as large a number as possible, by those who know little of such 

 matters. It is almost invariably the ease, however, that such an 

 over-crop on a young tree confirms that delicacy of constitution of 

 which it is the index, and gives it for ever after a sickly and dwarf- 

 ish habit. In all such instances the fruit should be plucked off 

 annually, till the tree or plant has attained vigor and size enough to 

 enable it to mature its fruit without exhaustion. A. J. D. 



