586 On the Degeneracy of Persian Melons. 



fruit of large size, and rich saccharine quality, so that it may 

 attain the highest state of growth and perfection, which it is 

 capable of acquiring, has rarely, and probably never, been 

 given, in any season of the year, by any British gardener. 



I received about ten years ago, from Sir Harford Jones 

 Bridges, better known to the public as Sir Harford Jones, 

 some seeds of the Melon, which has been named in our 

 Transactions, the Sweet Ispahan Melon, and which he ob- 

 tained from Persia. Having found it to be a very excellent 

 variety, equal, and indeed superior, to any which I had before 

 possessed or seen, I took measures, which I think have proved 

 perfectly successful, to cause it to retain its size undiminished, 

 and its flavour unimpaired : and I have, to make the experi- 

 ment fairly, generally sowed in each year some of the seeds 

 which I obtained in the preceding year ; unless I failed to 

 succeed in obtaining those under favourable circumstances, 

 and in a proper state. The taste and flavour of the fruit 

 under the mode of culture, which I have adopted, and which 

 I shall proceed to describe, appear to me to be now quite as 

 perfect as when the variety first came into my possession; 

 and the weight of the largest fruit I obtained in the last 

 season, exceeded by more than two pounds the weight of the 

 largest, which I raised under the same mode of culture from 

 the seeds first put into my possession, it having weighed ten 

 pounds six ounces. 



I have cultivated this variety generally in a brick-pit sur- 

 rounded by hollow walls, through which warm atmospheric 

 air at all times enters abundantly ; and of which a description 

 and plate have been given in our Transactions, putting each 

 plant in a separate large pot, and suffering it to bear one 



