THE MELON-. 
68 ( J 
Green Hoosainee. — One of tlie best for tliis climate, and 
bears well. Fruit egg-shaped, of medium size, skin light green, 
netted. Flesh pale greenish white, tender and abounding with 
sugary, highly perfumed juice. Seeds large. 
Sweet Ispahan. — The most delicious of all melons. Fruit 
large oval ; skin nearly smooth, deep sulphur colour. Flesh 
greenish white, unusually thick, crisp, and of the richest and 
most sugary flavour. Ripens rather late. 
Large Germek. — Early, good bearer, and very excellent. 
Fruit of large size, roundish, flattened at the ends, and ribbed, 
skin green, closely netted. Flesh greenish, firm, juicy, rich and 
high flavoured. 
Besides the foregoing there are Winter Melons from the 
South of Europe, very commonly cultivated in Spain, which, if 
suspended in a dry room, may be kept till winter. The Green 
Valencia and the Dampsha are the three principal sorts ; they 
are oval, skin netted, flesh white, sugary and good. 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
The Water-Melon. 
Cucurbita citrullus , L. Cucurbitacece , of botanists. 
Pasteur , of the French ; Wasser Melone, German ; Cocomer o, Italian. 
The Water-Melon is a very popular and generally cultivated 
fruit in this country. The vine is a training annual of the most 
vigorous growth, and the fruit is very large, smooth, and green, 
with a red or yellow core. Though far inferior to the melon in 
richness, its abundant, cooling juice renders it very grateful and 
refreshing in our hot midsummer days. Immense fields of the 
water-melon are raised in New Jersey and Long Island, and 
their culture is very easy throughout all the middle and southern 
states. 
The cultivation of the water-melon is precisely similar to that 
of the melon, except that the hills must be eight feet apart. 
The finest crops we have ever seen, were grown upon old pieces 
of rich meadow land, the sod well turned under with the plough 
at the last of April, and the melons planted at once. 
The following are its best varieties. 
1. Imperial. — A remarkably fine flavoured and very productive 
sort, from the Mediterranean. Fruit of medium size, nearly 
round. Skin pale green and white, marbled, rind remarkably 
thin, flesh solid to the centre, light red, crisp, rich, and high 
flavoured. Seeds quite small, reddish brown. 
2. Carolina. — The large common variety. Fruit very large, 
