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LVII. Observations and Discoveries connected with the Culture of 

 Melons. By G. J. Towers, Esq. C. M. H. S. 



Read December 3, 1833. 



I had the honour to address the Horticultural Society of London, 

 upon some facts of considerable importance which had excited my 

 notice in cultivating a plant of the Striped Housainee Melon, last 

 summer. The paper was read at the Meeting of the 20th of August ; 

 but as subsequent observation has elicited a variety of additional 

 facts of great interest, I feel called upon to embody my remarks into 

 one article and to forward it to the Secretary without delay, in the 

 hope that my experience may lead to minute investigation and to 

 very satisfactory results. 



A small stove, the angle of the roof of which was about 26 degrees, 

 I had found, in the year 1832, to be well adapted to the cultivation 

 of the Persian tribe of Melons : in this stove I fruited the fine spe- 

 cimen of the Striped Housainee, which weighed 6lbs. 5ozs., and was 

 sent to the Society at the close of August. It was furnished with a 

 pit, designed originally to contain a bed of oak-leaves, but which, 

 latterly, was converted into an air-chamber, covered by a platform 

 of boards, supporting a bed of light vegetable and sandy earth. 

 The pit was heated on three sides by a flue, which formed the basis 

 of its wall and reached as high as the platform of the air-chamber ; 

 so that the bed of earth was altogether above the upper surface of 

 the flue : it however received the heat of the air underneath, and, 

 consequently, the temperature of the bed of earth averaged from 

 72 to 80 degrees, as long as fires were kept up ; but subsequently, 

 the earth, without the aid of fire-heat, was cooled down below 70 



