776 THE PERSIAN MELON. 
uiauiued with pigeons' clung. Upou these beds the melous are 
planted. The Persian gardener has, therefore, to guard against no- 
thing but a scarcity of water, the rest is provided by his own favour- 
able climate. With us, the atmosphere, the ventilation, the water, 
and the heat, are all artificial agents, . operating in opposition to each 
other." 
Having thus treated generally of the melon, and referred to such 
authorities as may tend to prepare the reader for what remains to be 
said on the habits and cultivation of this newly introduced tribe ; I 
shall . proceed to speak particularly of that most interesting variety, 
which will form the chief subject of the remaining part of this paper. 
The striped Housainee melon, is to the present day, scarcely 
known in this country; in fact, it was not at all known, until Mr. 
Knight gave a description of it, in the Horticultural Transactions of 
1831. 
A melon, (No. 19, of Lindley's Catalogue,) termed the Green 
HoQsainee, is thei'ein described as a handsome egg-shaped fruit, five 
inches long, and four inches in diameter, of a fine, even, bright 
green colour, rather yellow when ripe, and with greenish flesh ;" but 
this diflers in many essential particulars, from the excellent variety 
that I shall now attempt to describe. 
The striped Housainee melon is a noble fruit, one of gi'eat beauty 
and excellence : its skin is firm, but thin, the rind under it, and the 
fleshy cellular substance adjoining, to the depth of rather more than 
the eighth of an inch, is of a bright green, gradually becoming pa- 
ler, till it meets and blends with the bulk of the flesh, which is of a 
pinkish buff or salmon colour ; the green portion is not quite so ten- 
der and juicy as the internal substance; but the whole may be eaten 
so as to have nothing remaining but the thin exterior integument;,, 
there is no defraud in this fine fruit, all is juicy and eatable, the fla- 
vor is delicious, the odor that of a fragrant apple, and the fruit will 
long remain good without deca}-. 
In its form this melon resembles an egg, the stalk-end being more 
enlarged than that of the blossom. It is, during its early growth, of 
a dark green colour, but as its age advances, the stripes become very 
appai'ent : they are of a full sombre green, and divide the surface 
into distinct marked portions, leaving it, however, perfectly free from 
gi'ooves or fuiTows ; and hence, this variety may be styled, a smooth 
melon, although it finally becomes reticulated with an ash-grey co- 
loured net- work. When n^ar to maturity, small greenish yellow 
spots are manifest among the interstices of the netting, and a clear 
yellow circle surrounds the payt at the insertion of the footstalk. 
