5°3 



planted there are but few varieties, the most striking one being a 

 very large fruit about 18 inches long. This which is said to be a 

 Ceylon variety, is somewhat inferior in flavour to the smaller 

 kinds, but is notwithstanding a very fine fruit. A good papaya 

 should be dull green in colour and tolerably firm in the flesh which 

 should be of a full orange colour. In some fruit the flesh is soft 

 and watery, and there is an excess of the milky latex. 



The young fruit cooked makes an excellent vegetable, resem- 

 bling vegetable marrows. 



The Mountain Papaya, Carica cundimarcensis has been from 

 time to time introduced into the Straits. It will not grow in the 

 plains, and I have not heard of its fruiting in the hills. 



ClJCURBlTACE/E. 



The Rock melons are very difficult to grow here on account of the 

 dampness of the climate. They grow well up to a certain point and 

 then drop off their stalks which rot through before they are ripe. 

 However Mrs. KYNNERSLEY formerly succeeded in fruiting some 

 small Melons, at Malacca, and which were of good flavour, 

 were very small in size. In the dryer parts of the peninsula it is 

 possible that some success might be had with these, but the absence 

 of a dry season in which the fruit can ripen mulitates much against 

 the success of their cultivation. 



Some good sized fruits of Cucumis Melo var mo?nordica were lately 

 grown successfully in the Botanic Gardens, it is quite an eatable 

 melon though rather poor in flavour, I had some cooked also as a 

 vegetable and found it palatable. The ripe fruit is cylindric, mottled 

 dark and light green from i to 2 feet long, and 3 to 6 inches through, 

 weight 4 to 10 pounds. 



The water melon, Citrtillits vulgar is is easily grown here, and not 

 rarely to be seen in Chinese Gardens but it might be more exten- 

 sively cultivated. There are a considerable number of varieties es- 

 pecially in America which might well be worth introducing. 



The musk melon, is often cultivated. It is an oblong white melon 

 rather pithy in texture and with a distinct taste of musk. It is a 

 poor thing as a fruit. 



The melons are all raised from seed, and require good rich soil, 

 and are except in the case of the water melon, best grown on a 

 trellis, and well supported. They are very liable to attacks of in- 

 sects. The crickets and grass hoppers eat down the seedlings, 

 small beetles attack the leaves and various insects attack the fruit 

 itself. The fruit however may be protected in this case by enclos- 

 ing them in a piece of musquito curtain. Iron in the soil is said to 

 be fatal to melons, though some forms certainly grow fairly well in 

 our soil here which is very rich in iron. 



THE IMPROVED METHOD OF MARCOTTAGE. 



The method of propagating plants now pretty generally known 

 to gardeners and planters as Marcottage, or in Malay countries by 

 the Malay name of " Balut", which seems to be the more desirable 



