VI.] 



LIST OF FRUITS. 



191 



274. MEDLAR. — A very poor thing, indeed, propagated by 

 grafting on pear-stocks or crab-stocks. It is hardly worth notice, 

 being, at best, only one degree better than a rotten apple. 



275. MULBERRY.— This tree is raised from cuttings or from 

 layers after the manner directed under those heads. It is planted 

 out like an apple or a pear-tree. It should not stand in the 

 kitchen garden, for it grows to a great size, and should have grass 

 beneath to receive the falling fruit, which is never so good when 

 gathered from the tree. It is well known that silk-worms feed 

 on the mulberry leaf, especially on that of the white mulberry, 

 which is cultivated for that purpose in France and Italy, and 

 which grows wild in America, bearing prodigiously. The other 

 sort is the red mulberry, or purple, as it ought to be called, and 

 this is the only sort that is common in England. 



276. MELON. — As to the rearing of Melons, that has been 

 fully treated of in the foregoing Chapter. The sorts is all that we 

 have to do with here. The following is the list of those cultivated 

 in the King's gardens : Early Cantaleupey Early Leopard, Early 

 PolignaCjEarlyRomana, Green-fleshed netted, Green-fleshedRocTt, 

 Bosse^ s Early Rock, Black Rock, Silver Rock, Scarlet-fleshed Rock* 

 In America, there is a melon of oblong shape, of small size, and of 

 most delicate flavour. They call it the nutmeg melon ; the vines 

 are very slender. It is quick in bearing, its colour, when ripe, is 

 of a greenish yellow, and its flesh very nearly approaching to 

 white. This the finest melon that I ever tasted. The great 

 things that come from France, sometimes, are very little better 

 than a squash or a pumpkin. I had some white-coated melons, 

 the seed of which came from Spain : they weighed from eight to 

 twelve pounds a-piece ; but were, in point of flavour, not a bit 

 better than a white turnip. The rock melons of various sorts are, 

 in my opinion, but very poor things ; there is no part of them, 

 except just the middle, that is not hard, unless you let the fruit 

 remain till it be nearly rotten. Indeed all the red-fleshed melons 

 are hard ; and I never have seen any melon of that description 

 that I really liked to eat. The little American melon, which is 

 grown there in great quantities in the natural ground, may be 

 eaten all out with a spoon, leaving a rind at least not thicker than 

 a shilling : it has twice the quantity of eatable pulp of a great 

 rock melon. But there is the water-melon, resembling other 

 melons only in its manner of growing, and somewhat in the shape 



