MELON. 



245 



common weight. The ground colour of the fruit is 

 green, variegated with blotches and large wart-like 

 swellings, becoming partially yellow when ripe. The 

 flesh is firm, orange-coloured, juicy, and replete with 

 an agreeable vinous flavour. 



Rock melons are hardy and fruitful. The plants 

 are usually stopped at the first or second joint, this 

 causes the production of runners ; these are trained 

 outwards till they reach the sides of the frame, when 

 tliey are also stopped : this second stopping causes 

 the production of lateral bearers from the joints 

 behind, and which soon show and set fruit. The 

 fruit intended to ripen should receive regulation ; 

 those of the same degree of forwardness, and equally 

 disposed over the runners, should be preferred, and 

 care taken that no one fruit gets the start of the 

 others. 



The cultivation of rock melons should be on a more 

 ample scale than for the more diminutive growers ; 

 larger frames and beds ; a thicker covering of 

 stronger compost, together with, at all times, a lively 

 bottom heat. 



There are many accounts of enormous sized melons 

 being occasionally raised, especially from newly im- 

 ported seeds. These, like the snake melon grown 

 by the writer, five and a half feet long, can only 

 be valued as curiosities. The varieties which we 

 already have in cultivation, are surely sufficient for 

 every useful purpose. The object of the cultivator 

 ought to be, the best qualities united with moderate 



