JUNE. 167 
Metropolitan (Spalding), purple self, very smooth petal, paste watery, 
tube pale yellow; a thin flimsy looking flower. 
Adonis (Headley), beautiful plum, and nice smooth petal, the only 
good properties it possesses. 
Eliza (Sim), reddish purple, paste narrow, pale yellow tube-; no great 
thing, only new. 
Mrs. Sturrock (Martin), reddish crimson, paste fine, tube yellow; a 
flower well worthy of extended cultivation. 
Of old sorts, and which ought to be in every collection of Auriculas, 
there are,—in greens. Page’s Champion, Colonel Taylor, Prince of 
Wales, Smith’s Waterloo, Hogg’s Waterloo, and Booth’s Freedom; in 
greys. Complete, Lancashire Hero (Cheetham), Mary Ann, and Ne 
Plus Ultra; in whites. Glory, Earl Grosvenor, Delight, and Bobert 
Burns—extra finely bloomed this year ; Regular, Smiling Beauty, and 
True Briton; and in seifs, Othello, Eclipse (Martin’s), and Jupiter. 
Falkirk. R. B. 
ON THE CULTIVATION OP MELONS. 
There are but few fruits cultivated in this country which require 
more care than the Melon ; and this is more particularly the case when 
the fruit is required to ripen early in the season. In our younger days, 
when hot water was in its infancy, as regards its application for 
furnishing bottom heat to the Melon and Cucumber, the common three- 
light frame heated by stable dung was the only accommodation we could 
give these fruits, and it required an amount of labour, care, and 
patience, to obtain early produce from such frames as few of our 
younger managers have now an idea of. To cut Cucumbers in February 
and Melons in May was considered the acme of perfection in gardening, 
and yet, notwithstanding all the care with linings, covering up, &c., dis¬ 
appointment was more frequently the case than success. The substitution 
of low pits, heated by hot-water, and having the pipes flowing beneath 
the bed of soil to afford bottom heat, leave little room for failures, when 
properly constructed. Perhaps the best form for a working pit is 
one with a south aspect, and an unequal span roof, or the back sash 
made to open for ventilation, which must also be provided at the front, 
as a gentle but constant flow of air through the pit is one of the 
greatest means of success: these structures should be well glazed to 
admit as much light as possible. They need not be very wide ; from 
8 to 10 feet will be the most manageable width ; a path inside next the 
back wall, some 2 feet wide, will allow 6 or 7 feet in width for the 
border, which should be deep enough to allow 2 feet clear of soil, and 
may be brought to within 2 feet of the glass in front. A house of 
this description, not elevated very much above the ground level 
at the front, and with the path inside sunk, may be very economically 
worked. It is important the trellis for training the Vines of the Melon 
plants be 18 inches from the glass. The foliage of some varieties is 
large and it should be a point that 6 or 7 inches should_intervene 
between the upper surface of the leaves and the glass ; this will allow a 
