222 



On the Culture of the Melon. 



plant, particularly under glass, are slender and feeble; its 

 leaves are broad and heavy, and its leaf stalks long ; so that 

 if the leaves be once removed, either by the weight of water 

 from the watering pot, the hand of the gardener in pruning 

 or eradicating weeds, or any other cause, from their proper 

 position, they never regain it ; and in consequence, a large 

 portion of that foliage, which preceded, or was formed at the 

 same period with the blossoms, and which nature intended to 

 generate sap to feed the fruit, becomes diseased and sickly, 

 and consequently out of office, before the fruit acquires 

 maturity. 



To remedy this defect, I placed my plants at greater dis- 

 tances from each other than my gardener had previously 

 done, putting a single plant under each light, the glass of 

 which was six feet long by four wide. The beds were formed 

 of a sufficient depth of rich mould to ensure the vigorous 

 growth of the plant : and the mould was, as usual, covered 

 with brick-tiles, over which the branches were conducted in 

 every direction, so as to present the largest possible width of 

 foliage to the light. Many small hooked pegs, such as the 

 slender branches of the beech, the birch, and hazle, readily 

 afford, had been previously provided ; and by these, which 

 passed into the mould of the bed, between the tiles, the 

 branches of the plants were secured from being disturbed 

 from their first position. The leaves were also held erect, 

 and at an equal distance from the glass, and enabled, if 

 slightly moved from their proper position, to regain it. 



I, how ever, still found that the leaves sustained great injury 

 from the weight of the water falling from the watering pot; 

 and I therefore ordered the water to be poured, from a vessel 



