FEB,] THE GARDENEB. 95 



When the melon is in flower, "watering overhead 

 must be dispensed with, and gentle vapour only occa- 

 sionally raised to nourish the leaves, for it would be 

 injurious to keep the flowers too moist at this time. 

 Every female blossom must now be carefully impreg- 

 nated, and as soon as the fruits are set and iDeginning 

 to swell, plenty of moisture and a closer atmosphere 

 will be of the greatest service till they are swelled full 

 size, when moisture at the root and also vapour on the 

 leaves must be finally dispensed with." These judi- 

 cious observations from a correspondent of Mr. Lou- 

 don prove that the melon requires much careful treat- 

 ment. The raising of cucumbers is much easier, but 

 the great superiority of the other gives it a just claim 

 to extreme care.* 



The impregnation of the blossoms is effected by ap- 

 plying the pollen of one flower to the stigma of another, 

 and this is done by pinching off one of the male flowers, 

 and after carefully stripping it of its corolla, so as not 

 to injure the stamen or anther, inserting it into the 

 female flower, and leaving it there. The same plan 

 must be adopted for cucumbers grown in frames at an 

 early period of the year, on account of the little chance 

 there is of plants so situated at such a season being 

 casually impregnated by bees, &c.f 



* Those gardeners who provide luxuries for the table, pot 

 single plants to produce a single fruit for the stovehouse. 



f " Plants agree with animals in having a sexual system, but 

 they differ from animals in having, for the most part, both sexes 

 in the same individual. In the improvement of plants, as in the 

 improvement of animals, the sexual system is a powerful agent ; 

 and what is called cross breeding is employed with as great ad« 

 vantage in the vegetable as in the animal kingdom. It is remark- 

 able that the general laws and results by which the process of 

 cross breeding in both kingdoms is regulated, are the same ; the 

 two parents must be two varieties of the same, or nearly allied 

 species, and their qualifications may be diiierent but must not 

 be opposite ; the preponderating influence in point of character 



