mm&zt 
VOL. XXVITT. No. ir. I 
WHOLE No. 1239. ) 
t PRICK SIX CENT!* 
I 82.50 PER YEAR. 
I Entored acoordlntt to Aot of Congress, In the year 1373, by D. D. 
Moo UK, in the office of the Librarian of Con(fro8s, at TYashlngton.) 
inches across ; and exactly eighteen inches 
from the cross-bred grows a very fine cu¬ 
cumber, as shown. My first feelings of 
surprise are somewhat lessened when I ra- 
membor how very prone some species of 
Cucwbitaceir are to produce very diverao 
varieties amongst themselves, as the melon 
with its white, yellow or red flesh, and its 
smooth or tuberculated bark, and the numer¬ 
ous varieties thrown off from the cucumber. 
“ ‘ The two plants, moreover, come under 
the same genus, the melon being (luc.umis 
Melo, whilst the cucumber is C. xativun. Had 
they not been thus nearly related, and be¬ 
longed to different genera, the hybrid would 
have gone to prove a very close affinity be¬ 
tween the two parents. I conceive that tho 
eross-breds between different genera of Or- 
chidaceffi produced in Messrs. Vbitch’s es¬ 
tablishment. by Mr. Dominy, show the ex¬ 
tremely close affinity of the different genera 
experimented upon. A few words as to the 
parents will be of interest. Both the melon 
and cucumber plants are in the highest state 
of robust health. The melon is Munro'a 
Little Heath melon, with red flesh. The plants 
are heavily cropped with magnificent fruit, 
many specimens weighing from Tibs, to 8 lbs. 
The cucumber is Watson’s Antagonist, which 
is a healthy new seedling with fruits of great 
size and fine form. Characteristic specimens 
that I measured were 30 inches long and 9 
inches round. Mr. Watson assured me that 
its qualities for the table are first-class, and 
as he intends selling seed of it next season, 
its worth will soon bo tested by the horticul 
tural world.—W. G. Smith.’ ” 
A MELON CUCUMBER, 
MUSHROOMS IN PASTURES 
We find in a late Cottage Gardener (of 
London) the following article and accom¬ 
panying illustration, which we transfer to 
our columns :—“We received from Mr. A. 
Spa ity, gardener, Digswoll House, Melwyn, 
the following communication ‘A remark¬ 
able freak of nature may be seen at the pres¬ 
ent time in the nurseries of Mr. John Wat¬ 
son, St. Albans. In a span-roof house, occu¬ 
pied on the south side with Munro’s Little 
Heatli melon, and on the north with cucum¬ 
bers, is a cucumber plant on the melon side, 
bearing both cucumbers and a 
melon. The melon is about the r,h __ 
size of a goose egg, and slight- (' 'j^' , 
ly elongated in form ; and al - ^ If / j ^ 
though there is a small crack in j j V 
I think, from over- ji 
Fhom a correspondent in Land and Water 
we copy the following “ Believing it possi¬ 
ble to grow mushrooms iu pastures, I last year 
made some experiments which I think were 
successful. The course of reasoning which 
led to them is too long to detail no ,v, but the 
moduit operand* was ai follows Wishing 
to plant a pasture field near my house, 1 pro¬ 
ceeded thus :—i broke up mushroom spawn 
into pieces from the size of a filbert to that 
of a small walnut, and set a small boy to 
spawn the dropping of the cows 
-v and horses by making a hole 
with a potato-dibber or small 
j) Vi erowbar (called here a fold- 
_J) J)„ pitcher) through the droppings 
an< * about one und a half inches 
Jv V into the mould beneath. A piece 
x J ] j of spawn was dropped into this, 
-j J and a vigorous stamp with the 
/k. X/'jf heel of the heavy boot com- 
// pleted the process. 1 used less 
I than half a bushel of spawn, 
| ft 1J) and was, as I believe, largely 
^ yfM repaid for my trouble and ex- 
fff/ pense in mushrooms during the 
natural season. I began the 
/ same process again yesterday, 
and hope to have more convinc¬ 
ing proofs of the success of my 
plan this year. I think a crop 
may even be secured after May, 
but I should not expect that 
spawning could be carried on 
with much expectation of re- 
~ l suit after the middle of July. If 
\ nay experiment be made public, 
\ I am in hopes that more exact 
-< l operators than myself will work 
, v. out the idea till a crop of fine 
i mushrooms may become as cer- 
' i tain as turnips.” 
it, caused, 
watering, Mr. Watson thinks 
that it will ripen and produce 
seed. Was this compound fruit 
caused by tho action of the 
melon pollen on the cucumber 
blossom, or was it wrought pre¬ 
viously in the parent of the 
cucumber plant ? Mr. Watson 
is of the former opinion, as he 
has not grown melons for a very 
long period. Have any of your 
readers met with a similur in¬ 
stance V 
“We requested Mr. W. G. 
Smith, the botanist and 
draughtsman, to examine the 
‘ Melon-cucumber,’ and the fol¬ 
lowing is the result:—“Acting 
Upon your request to visit Mr. 
Watson’s nurseries at St. Al¬ 
bans, and mako a drawing and 
notes of hie melon growing upon 
a cucumber plant, 1 went there, 
anil now send the. results. Until 
the present season, Mr. Watson 
had not grown melons for 30 
years, and the melon-cucumber 
fruit here illustrated grows upon 
a cucumber plant on the north 
side of a span - roof cucumber 
house, in which house, on the 
south side, are planted a few fine 
Munro’s Little Heath melon 
plants. The pollen of a male 
flower of a melon was probably 
transferred to tho female flower 
of a cucumber by some insect, 
ami so tho curious hybrid has 
arisen, 
( ‘ ‘The Melon-cucumber is V/ z 
inches long and 8# inches round. 
It seems externally to be exact¬ 
ly intermediate between its two 
parents ; its general fonn is 
that of the melon ; its skin is 
yellowish-green, and furnished 
toward the fruit stalk with a 
few cucumber hairs ; the fruit 
stalk itself and the base of the 
fruit is that of the melon. Mr. 
Watson believes the fruit will 
properly ripen and produce 
seed ; but what the nature of 
the interior of the fruit may be, 
time can only show. On the 
axil of the stem which produces 
this cros-bred is a cucumber leaf 
of extraordinary size, measuring 
i! o less than one foot twq 
GARDEN NOTES 
Large Erfurt,, Earliest Cauli¬ 
flower .— Mr. N. Vandehhuiici, 
Vicksburg, Miss., bought one 
of the seed of t his variety, of the 
product of which the Vicks¬ 
burg Herald aays We were 
yesterday shown by Mr. N. Van- 
derhurg, a cauliflower, raised on 
his place, inside the city limits, 
which is a long ways ahead of 
anything we have ever seen. 
The plant is three feet in cir¬ 
cumference, and weighs 
pounds. Mr. Vauderburg thinks 
that this single vegetable would 
command as much as five dol¬ 
lars in market. He has a fine 
garden, and is reaping a rich 
return for his labor. Mr, Van-* 
derburg is not one of those men 
who mortgage their land? and 
deprive themselves of the com¬ 
forts of life iu order that they 
may indulge their propensity for 
raising cotton, Ur the exclusion 
of everything else. 
The Vitality of Garden Heeds 
depends upon the temperature 
at which they are kept. Put 
them in bags, and keep in a dry, 
airy place through the winter. 
