J«B« M. 18»0, J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
501 
has something to do with this satisfactory state of affairs, though 
I am not altogether prepared to admit that has much to do with 
the case. That a close moisture-laden atmosphere is unfavourable 
to the free setting of the fruit generally I readily concede, and for 
this reason would keep the house somewhat drier during the time the 
plants were in bloom, always supposing a good set could not be 
effected without it. That is not the secret of success in our case, nor 
in one other garden I am acquainted with where the Melons behave 
exactly as they do here. If we want them to behave similarly to 
Cucumbers we must treat them in some respects more liberally at 
the roots. The usual plan is to form small mounds of poor hard 
loam, no further additions being made to the same, and not enough 
water or liquid manure of any kind given to keep the roots alive 
and the plants in a clean active state. The wonder is not that the 
plants fail to set a good crop and collapse early, but that they do 
any good at all. Since the introduction of hot-water pipes for 
affording both top and bottom heat, the old custom of starting the 
Melons on a small hotbed has gradually been discontinued in 
many gardens, without in some cases taking into consideration that 
this was the principal food supply of the plants. With a con¬ 
siderable amount of leafage fully exposed to bright sunshine all 
through a long day there is certain to be a great amount of 
jmbisture evajmrated, and this must be drawn from below, or it 
is not long before burning, red spider, and other evils are in the 
ascendant. If there is decaying heating material underneath, then 
ought the depth of loam or compost to be not less than 2 feet, this 
being kept up together in a square continuous heap either with 
•thick turves or a loose 4i-inch brick wall. There is no necessity 
•for or wisdom in mixing rich solid manure with the loam used, but 
if the latter is somewhat clayey and strong newly slaked lime mav 
well be added at the rate of a 6-inch potful to two bushels of soil. 
Our loam is of a very poor quality, and we therefore add an 8-inch 
potful of bonemeal to every barrowload of it. This simple 
mixture appears to suit the Melons well, and further light 
surfacings of loam and bonemeal, the latter being more freely 
used this time, keeps the roots remarkably active near the surface. 
That the quality as well as the amount of the loam given to 
^lelons greatly affects the character of the crop I am well aware, 
but I am also equally certain that really good crops can be taken 
from plants rooting in almost any kind of compost. What they 
.particularly need, and must have, is plenty of moisture at the roots, 
In order to be able to apply this freely and simply, nearly square 
^nounds enclosed by either turf or brick walls—the only raised por¬ 
tion of the bed of soil being immediately about the collar of the 
plants. The latter precaution is advisable as a preventive of 
canker, perfect dryness about the stems very rarely, if ever, failing 
to preserve them from this dreaded evil. In our case the best of 
-soil is enclosed on one side with a permanent wall, and on the other 
is kept together and kept in a moist state by a 4i-inch wall tem¬ 
porarily formed with loose bricks — this being far better than boards, 
as these twist and shrink badly. Not till the last of the fruits 
are ripening, or towards the end of the season, the same plants 
continuing to produce fruit as long as required, are they really 
■“ dried ” at the roots. On the contrary they are watered twice 
a day in hot weather, and generally once daily when there is little 
•sunshine. This, coupled with occasional top-dressing of loam and 
bonemeal, keeps the roots extremely active, or quite as much so as 
in the case of Cucumbers similarly treated, and the plants in a 
bealthy vigorous condition. Naturally failures do sometimes occur, 
'but they only go to prove the rule. Probably the flavour of the 
fruits would be slightly improved if less water and liquid manure 
was given just when they are ripening, but this we cannot afford 
■to study, withholding water for a few days seriously checking the 
progress of successional fruits. Our fruits are seldom in a hurry to 
part from the stems. Most of them are cut, the ripening being com¬ 
pleted on a shaded shelf in the same house, and they are kept and 
further improved in some cases in a cool dry room. 
These remarks are perhaps offered somewhat too late to benefit 
many of my readers who might wish to modify their methods of 
Melon culture, but in numerous cases there is yet time to change 
the root treatment of the plants. Instead of leaving the small 
isolated mounds to gradually become hard, dry, and as impervious 
<to water as a duck’s back, not an active root after a few weeks 
being found in them, the wiser plan would be to gradually surround 
all with fresh loam or whatever compost may be preferred. This 
will soon form a continuous and nearly flat ridge of soil, and which 
■can easily be kept moist. It is advisable, though, to enclose the 
sides with a brick wall, or otherwise the outer edges cannot be kept 
properly moistened, a free root action being thereby much checked. 
Keep the hricks moist, and the roots find their way up to them, 
many protruding through spaces between them, always supposing 
fio mortar or cement has been used in the construction of the 
walls. Where good turves are plentiful, and which is not, unfortu¬ 
nately, very generally the case, the walls may be formed with 
these. Quite recently I saw a grand lot of !Melon plants growing 
in a bed of soil enclosed at the back by a wall, and at the front by 
thick turves of good clayey loam. The roots were showing through 
the latter much as Vine roots will protrude when piecemeal bordeis 
are similarly fronted with turves. Starvation treatment of Melons 
has too long been adopted, and it is quite time opposite methods of 
culture were adopted. I venture to think my friend ^Ir. Pettigrew, 
of Cardiff Castle, will readily endorse this sentiment, as it is an 
undeniable fact that he has been most successful with Melons 
grown on lines even more simple than we venture to adopt. 
—W. Iggulden. 
PARISIAN HORTICULTURE. 
( Continued from 2 )age 483.') 
The Salon—Floral Pictures. 
Some concluding remarks in my last letter referred to the 
desirability of including representations of floral art in large exhi¬ 
bitions, and it may, therefore, be appropriate to say a few words 
about the great display of pictures in the Palais de ITndustrie, 
which has gained a world-wide fame in artistic circles as the “ Salon.” 
It would not be suited to the pages of this Journal to enter upon a 
review of the general works of art there shown, for they cover a 
wide field, but what we are concerned with are the floral pictures. 
Even these I cannot pretend to criticise from a professional artistic 
point of view, but only as one who has a keen appreciation of the 
beautiful in the flower and plant world, and who has studied foliage 
and plants closely in all their relations to decorative uses. Perhaps 
it is an old complaint that artists too often fail to do justice to 
flowers from a specialist’s standpoint ; perhaps, too, there is some 
truth in the retort that the florists’ ideal is frequently inartistic, 
heavy, formal, and “ lumpy.” For instance, to take the flowers to 
which the latter term has been particularly applied, the show 
Dahlias, probably no artist would think of depicting a box of 
these as set up at the ordinary exhibitions. Even the glorious 
Rose would lose its charms if represented on canvas under such 
conditions. The Carnation and the Chrysanthemum would come 
into the same category. Still it is hard to understand why more 
beauty can be seen in a “starveling” than in a well-developed 
example, though strangely enough in exhibitions of pictures we 
more often see the former than the latter, and it produces an 
almost painful impression upon those familiar with the flowers to 
see a poor attenuated specimeij figuring in picture. 
In the Salon the flower pictures are not very abundant this year, 
and they chiefly deal with Chrysanthemums and Roses,^some groups 
of wild or hardy flowers being observed, but, with few exception, 
they are unsatisfactory to specialists, either from want of fidelity 
or imperfect character, and the same remark applies to the majority 
of flower subjects usually seen at our own Royal Academy Exhi¬ 
bition. The fact is there are fewer successful flower painters than 
in other departments of art, and it is very surprising that it 
should be so. It is true we have some highly skilful floral - 
draughtsmen, such as the Messrs. Fitch, Worthington Smith, and A 
F. W. Burbidge, but representations of individual plants or 
flowers, where the strictest accuracy is required in the smallest 
details, is very different from a group or arrangement of flowers 
depicted in oils upon a canvas. It is surprising that more artists 
do not devote themselves to floral subjects just as some do to por¬ 
trait, landscape, and animal painting. Not long since I heard of an 
artist in the West of London who states he has made over £1003 
by paintings of Chrysanthemums alone, and that in a short time. 
Orchids, though so popular with the wealthy classes, and so well 
adapted for artistic effect, are seldom seen at these exhibitions, 
and I did not remark one such picture in the Salon of any conse¬ 
quence. But it will be said that these notes are wandering rather 
wide of the title, and so we will try to bring ourselves into order by 
turning to a few subjects of a more practical nature as observed in 
the Horticultural Exhibition. 
Anthuriums. 
It was my good fortune to meet with several horticulturists of 
an extremely genial and enthusiastic character, and foremost 
amongst these, to whom I was privileged to be introduced, was 
M. A. de la Devansaye of the Chateau de Fresne, Maine et Loire, 
President of the Angers Horticultural Society, and a highly 
successful amateur cultivator. M. Devansaye has given special 
attention to Anthuriums for a number of years, and has raised 
some thousands of seedlings from crosses between all the best 
varieties obtainable of the A. Schertzerianum and allied types. 
From these he has rigorousl}' selected only the best and most 
distinct, employing these again as parents, with the result that he 
has secured the most diversified and beautiful series of forms that I 
have ever seen. Anthurium Schertzerianum lias been in cultivation 
