CHAPTER XIX. 
THE MELON. 
“ Ye gods that made me man, and sway in love, 
That have inflam’d desire in my breast 
To taste the fruit of yon celestial tree, 
Or die in the adventure, be my helps, 
As I am son and servant to your will, 
To compass such a boundless appetite.” 
Pericles, I., 1. 
HR) HE Melon (Gucumis melo) is as closely related to the 
Vjh cucumber in its horticultural requirements as in its 
morphological characteristics. The cultivation of the 
cucumber, therefore, is a good preparative to the cultivation 
of the melon, which requires more heat, more light, and less 
moisture to bring it to perfection. 
The melon is the noblest production of the kitchen garden, 
and well worthy of the high fame it has always enjoyed. The 
position it holds at exhibitions and in seedsmen’s catalogues 
indicates its importance and value, for it rarely happens that 
there is a tame competition in the classes for melons, while 
the annual supply of new varieties to supersede all the old 
ones is great enough to show that honour and profit are re- 
garded as the sure rewards of those who may succeed in 
effecting and establishing improvements. The melon agrees 
with most other garden plants in this, that its real improve- 
ment is a slow process, quite misrepresented by the so-called 
new varieties that are always current, and that appear to 
exist only to prove that between names and things there is 
often a great gulf fixed. Amongst these, however, occur from 
time to time distinct and useful kinds that mark a real 
advance in quality ; and one of the most satisfactory im- 
provements effected of late years is seen in the scarlet-fleshed 
class, the best of which are scarcely inferior in flavour to the 
best of the green-fleshed, which, until recently, enjoyed pre- 
eminence. 
