110 
HABITS OF THE MELON PLANTS. 
For the convenience of covering, it is best to leave two feet paths 
between beds of nine or ten plants, laid side by side in the cross 
rows; and lay each row so that the tops do not overlay one another. 
Likewise, for the winter use, May and June sowings may be planted 
out to gain strength upon north borders ; and they will become fine 
stocky plants for laying, by the time frost comes to point out the ne¬ 
cessity of laying and littering over. I find my north borders to be 
of equal importance to my south borders. 
I intend to send you some plans of the most approved hothouses, 
for various purposes of Horticulture, soon, and I hope you will see 
that justice is done to the engraving. 
ARTICLE VIII. 
I 
ENQUIRY INTO THE AQUATIC HABITS OF THE MELON PLANTS. 
By the Author of the Domestic Gardeners’ Manual , C. M. H. S. 
During the course of the late autumn, I addressed several papers to 
the London Horticultural Society, upon various interesting phaeno- 
mena connected with the subject of this article. As a member of 
that society, I believed it right, in the first instance, to present mv 
communication to it, as to the fountain head of horticultural science; 
but having done so, and to an extent that can leave no doubt in res¬ 
pect of the machinery I employed, nor difficulty in bringing my ex¬ 
periments to the severest practical tests, I now feel not only at liberty, 
but called upon, to place before your readers the results of mv dis¬ 
covery. 
By referring to Vol. 2, of the Horticultural Register, page 98, 
the form and arrangements of the small forcing-house in which I 
produced my fine Housainee melons in 1832, will be ascertained. 
The length of the house was subsequently increased, by the addition 
of a light, and the structure of the pit was materially changed. The 
flue, instead of running along the back wall alone, was carried bvthe 
east end of the pit, ran along the front and west end, and was so 
placed that, throughout its whole course thus described, it formed 
the base of the pit, which was completed by a brick wall of four-inch 
w r ork, of sufficient height capped with the kerb or shelf. So arranged, 
the whole heat from the inner face of the flue was thrown into the 
pit; and therefore, I had the leaf-bed cleared out, and an air cham¬ 
ber constructed, by a covering of planks, to the height of the flue. 
