Observations connected with the Culture of Melons. 469 



degrees. The upper surface of the flue was external of the pit wall, 

 one side only serving to heat the air-chamber, while the other side 

 and the covering tiles were wholly without the pit and afforded heat 

 to the atmosphere of the house. These remarks, though apparently 

 irrelevant, are necessary, because they apply particularly to the 

 main leading facts of the experiment to be now re-capitulated. I 

 premise only that the soil of the bed was not prepared for melons 

 at all : I had other objects in view ; but as I had a few plants grow- 

 ing and wished to fruit them, I removed them from their pots and 

 placed them in the bed of earth within 4 or 6 inches of the wall of 

 the pit. One of these plants was a seedling of the Striped Housainee 

 Melon : it was planted at one end of the pit, about 6 inches above the 

 top of the inner wall of the flue, from which it was separated by 4 

 inches of brick-work. Upon the top of the flue, very near to this 

 plant, a small brick cistern had been constructed ; it was intended 

 for the sole purpose of containing a few quarts of water to afford 

 evaporation. One side of this cistern was the wall of the pit, and 

 every joint was rendered water-tight by means of Parker's cement. 

 The routine of culture was observed, and nothing of moment 

 occurred till about the first week in July, when roots of some kind 

 were distinctly observed to have passed into the water of the cistern 

 and through one of the mortar joints of the wall. The progress of 

 these roots was carefully watched; and although fires were no longer 

 used regularly, the water was constantly renewed. On the 19th of 

 July, several decisive bundles of these roots had protruded and 

 assumed the form termed " the fox-tail root;" they increased ra- 

 pidly, extended across the cistern, and ramified so, as almost to fill 

 it. The Melon plant grew ; a fruit, (the only one on it) swelled 

 regularly and was very healthy. It was distinctly ascertained, by 

 removing the soil and tracing the course of the roots, that they had 

 taken the direction of the wall ; and that one or more radical pro- 

 cesses had entered that wall, passed through a mortar-joint, pierced 



