By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. 589 



blossoms with very beneficial effects upon the offspring. In 

 the last season I again introduced the pollen of the Ispahan 

 Melon into the blossoms of the cross bred varieties, and from 

 the seeds thus obtained, of which I send a small number, I 

 confidently expect fruit of very great excellence. It is, I be- 

 lieve, very generally supposed, that the offspring of cross 

 bred plants, as well as of cross bred animals, usually present 

 great irregularity and variety of character : but if a male of 

 permanent habits, and of course not cross bred, be selected, 

 that will completely overrule the disposition to sport irregu- 

 larly in the cross bred variety alike in the animal and vegetable 

 world, the permanent habit always controlling and prevailing 

 over the variable. The finest varieties of Melons are usually 

 supposed by gardeners to be comparatively with the Pine 

 Apple, fruits of easy culture : but experience has led me to 

 draw a contrary conclusion, and to believe that more skill, and 

 still more trouble and attention, are requisite, in almost all 

 seasons, to ensure a crop of Melons in the highest state of per- 

 fection which that fruit is capable of acquiring. If the leaves 

 of a Melon plant be suddenly exposed to the influence of the 

 sun in a bright day, which has succeeded a few cloudy days, 

 for a short time only, they frequently become irreparably in- 

 jured. If the air of the bed be kept a little too damp, the stems 

 of the plants often canker, and the leaves and stalks sustain 

 injury in the common hot-bed ; and if the air be too dry the 

 plants, and consequently the fruit, are injured by the depre- 

 dations of the red spider. The Pine Apple, on the contrary, I 

 have found, (as I have stated in former Communications) to be 

 a plant of very easy culture ; and 1 much doubt whether any 

 Pine-stove in the kingdom at the present moment contains as 



