84 
THE CULTURE OF THE MELON. 
*Gloria Mtmdl (Gebherd). — A showy, 
large, well-formed orange buff, with red backs 
to the petals, showing in front like a varie- 
gated Dahlia ; very double and very sym- 
metrical. 
* Beauty of Chelmsford. — A white or mot- 
tled flower, with purple rosy tip ; petals 
reflex ; flower not a bad form, but rather 
rough. It is, nevertheless, a showy variety. 
(Those with stars are neiv flowers for 1845.) 
LAPLACEA SEMISERRATA, OF ST. 
HILAIRE. 
HALF-SERRATED LEAVED LAPLACEA. 
A stove shrub under cultivation, but 
forming in Brazil, where it is a native, a 
small tree of twenty or thirty feet in height. 
Mr. Gardner found and gathered it at Goyaz. 
Without being remarkably handsome, it is a 
plant of considerable interest and beauty, and 
has several qualities which are highly com- 
mendatory. One of the best of these qualifi- 
cations is, that of blooming freely when of 
small size. A plant growing in the collection 
at Kew, though not above a foot in height, 
has hitherto bloomed freely during the early 
part of the winter— a season when free bloom- 
ing plants are held doubly valuable. Its 
dwarf, bushy habit, and permanent, ample 
foliage, are also good parts ; the latter, as 
well as the general appearance of the plant, 
has considerable resemblance to a Camellia, 
or still more to a Tea plant, with both of 
which it is very closely allied in its natural 
affinities. The leaves are oblong or obovate, 
with the margins serrated in the upper leaf, 
nearest the apex. The flowers are produced 
from the axils of the leaves on very short 
stalks, either singly, or two or three together: 
they are composed of a varying number (five 
to eight) of obcorclate white fleshy petals, and 
look something like those of a small single white 
Camellia. It belongs to the natural order 
Ternstrocmiaceas ; and is synonymous with the 
Hsemocharis semiserrata of Martins, and the 
Wickstraemia fruticosa of Sdhrader. 
With respect to cultivation, doubtless much 
the same treatment as permanent shrubby 
stove plants of this class generally receive, is 
suitable to this also. A compost of three 
parts of loam, and one part of peat earth, leaf 
mould, and sand, is perhaps the best of all 
mixtures for them, and capable of securing 
all that soil can effect : good treatment must 
therefore supply the rest ; and this would 
consist in apportioning them distinct periods 
of alternate rest and excitement. The rest 
should take place during the latter part of the 
summer, after the growth is matured ; and 
the excitement should take place early in the 
spring, after the blooming season was past. 
A progressive increase of heat, with moisture, 
maintained until the annual growth was 
ripened, should mark the latter, whilst the 
former ought to be characterised by as small 
a portion of both as would be consistent with 
the safety of the plants ; this would be some- 
thing warmer than a common green-house. 
THE CULTURE OF THE MELON. 
Probably there has been more written 
about the culture of the Melon than upon any 
other single subject, and yet we find hardly 
two persons recommending the same plan, or 
following the same practice. Nor is there 
much difficulty in producing fruit in great 
plenty, of good flavour, and handsome appear- 
ance. Formerly the Melon used to be an 
article of great consumption. It was not un- 
common to see a market gardener with his 
three or four hundred lights of Melons, pro- 
ducing week after week large quantities, and 
getting rid of them at good prices. Now it is 
rare to see any quantity grown, and the 
foreign Melons, though unfit to eat, seem to 
usurp at the market the places of their betters, 
at a price that would scarcely pay an English 
grower for cutting them and bringing them 
into London, even if they cost nothing to 
grow. The market gardeners' mode of grow- 
ing the Melon is simple enough. The hot- 
bed is made in the ordinary way ; the plants 
are put out on a little hillock under the 
centre of each light, common loam is added 
until it is ten or twelve inches thick all over 
the beds, a little air and occasional water 
until the plants are fairly set off growing, and 
there ends their culture. As soon as there is 
fruit likely to swell, they put a bit of tile 
under to prevent the earth from discolouring 
it, which it always will on the under side if it 
lie on the bare earth. We have ourselves 
seen three hundred lights of Melons treated 
