PROPERTIES OF FLOWERS. 
87 
sink the balls of earth, just as they leave the 
pots, up to their edges, three feet six inches 
apart, placing a hand-glass over each. This 
is to be tilted on the south side on hot days, and 
kept close down in cold weather and of nights. 
They will soon begin to find where they are, 
and grow, and want to get away from under 
the hand-glasses ; by the middle of June there 
will be no great danger of their being hurt, 
therefore the glasses may be propped up at 
the corners, the branches regulated, and 
pegged into their places, because otherwise 
high winds might bruise and break them ; be- 
sides, the certainty of blowing them out of 
their proper situations. If any of these 
branches show no fruit, they must be short- 
ened back, to throw out laterals that will. 
Fruit that begins to swell must be placed on 
slates or tiles. The plants must have water in 
dry weather, but the glasses will be a preserva- 
tive against too mueh water going to the centre 
of the plants. There may be a heavy well- 
flavoured crop in a good season ; but in this 
climate there is always some risk attached to 
adventures of the kind. Nevertheless, grow- 
ing both Melons and Cucumbers under hand- 
glasses is an old practice, and has been found 
to answer well in many seasons. 
SORTS TO BE GROWN. 
Those who have attended Melon feasts and 
shows many years, will hardly fail to remem- 
ber how very frequently some varieties beat 
all the rest for flavour, yet there are many 
kinds eatable in one locality, that are scarcely 
so in another. One of the very best flavoured 
Melons in this kingdom, we hesitate not to say, 
is the Windsor Prize. We have seen it cut 
against twenty kinds, and it has distanced 
them all. Of the Green-flesh Melons, that of 
Duncan's is both the most handsome and the 
best flavoured. A very great favourite all 
last year was the Beechwood Melon, whose 
fruit deserves all that has been said of it. The 
Cabul Melon has been made so much of, that 
a man had need arm himself before he ventured 
to give an honest opinion ; but there have been 
more nasty Melons grown and eaten under 
that name the past season than any other, and 
we have to regret that if there be one among 
the numerous Cabul Melons worthy of a place 
in a garden or at a table, we have not met 
with it, and shall be pleased when it is, our 
good fortune to do so. That there are some 
excellent Melons imported from the East there 
is no doubt, but until we know more about them 
we must take the words of the people who 
have seed to sell ; meanwhile we shall content 
ourselves with the sorts we have mentioned, and 
the Early Cantalope, and if it ever be our 
good fortune to meet with any thing to beat 
the Windsor Prize, we shall hail it as a sort 
that every Melon lover ought to possess at any 
cost. 
SAVING SEED. 
It is one of the most difficult things in the cul- 
ture of the Melon to secure the best seeds, and 
for this reason Melons ought to go to table cut, 
and the inside cleaned out, but there are other 
reasons scarcely less important. If the gar- 
dener cut a Melon in half before it went to 
table, he could throw an ill flavoured one 
aside; and another reason is, the nasty mess 
which the pulp makes when the fruit is cut 
in a room ; thus three decided advantages 
would be gained if some wise employer would 
order the Melons that come to table to be 
halved and cleaned out. First, it would pre- 
vent a bad one ever coming to table. Secondly, 
it would save a disagreeable mess. Thirdly, 
the gardener would secure his seed, which, for 
his master's sake, should be from the best 
the beds have produced. But as this is not 
permitted, and we suppose it will take time 
to persuade people to have a Melon cut before- 
hand; why, the gardener has to look out in 
time, and he must, at all .risks, secure the first 
and best, and the most likely to answer his 
expectation ; for there is no dependence in 
what goes once to the parlour, if there be a 
second fruit there. We once saw two Melons 
cut by a worthy gardener now no more, and 
there were a dozen persons at table; one was 
good, the other good for nothing. One man 
swept every seed from the good fruit into a 
plate, and took half the seeds from the other 
and put in its place. This trick was uuseen 
by most, but he disappeared for a few mo- 
ments, squeezed the juice and pulp through a 
towel, and pocketed the seed dry. It was 
curious to see how careful the gardener was 
to take every seed from the best plate and put 
it on one side, as the best he had had that 
season; but on being set to rights on that 
head, to the surprise of the man who had got 
the right seed, he informed him before the 
company, that he should want a dozen seeds, 
but that he might have the rest, only that he 
expected half-a-crown a seed. It is needless 
to say, the seed was returned at the table, and 
the man did not appear there afterwards. We 
only mention this, to show that once out of a 
gardener's hand he could depend on nothing. 
In conclusion, the culture of the Melon is 
so simple, and the fruit, when high-flavoured, 
is such a luxury, that we wonder any garden 
is without two or three lights of it, at any 
rate, more especially as the dung we use is worth 
all it costs, after it is done with for the Melons. 
PROPERTIES OF FLOTVERS. 
This important subject has been appro- 
priated by one person to himself, and sub- 
