HABITS OF THE MELON PLANTS. 
Ill 
but sloping upwards to, and resting upon a set-off, in the back wall 
of the pit. 
Upon the boards, a bed of light soil, consisting chiefly of very 
sandy earth, and half decayed leaves, was deposited. I mention this, 
because the nature of the soil intended for another object, had some 
effect upon the melon plants I shall refer to ; and again, because the 
following remarks may, in some degree, weigh with gardeners, who 
contemplate the formation of an air-chamber, as a means of affording 
heat to a bed of soil, and likewise to the atmosphere of the house. 
In two of the boards at opposite ends of the pit, holes were cut 
of a size to receive two sheet-iron pipes, for the egress of the warm 
air. I found my plan of the chamber to answer exceedingly well, 
as long as fires were required; for by pouring water down the pipes, 
and forcing it into the pit by a large syringe, through other open¬ 
ings in the pit wall, a moist and genial warm air was brought into 
the house at pleasure; and thus also, the reserve heat of the flue, 
that was pent up in the chamber by plugs placed in the pipes, was 
made available, whenever it seemed to be required. The soil like¬ 
wise of the bed was easily kept to the heat of 70 or 75 degrees. But 
when fires were dispensed with, the advantages of the chamber were 
lost, and some injuries were sustained by the plants without pots in 
the soil of the bed, which had been excited by the previous tempe¬ 
rate warmth of the earth. To finish this matter, which would be¬ 
come foreign to the business under enquiry, I observe that, I consi¬ 
der such chambers as delusive, and far inferior to the old leaf, or tan 
bed, and this season, have altogether given up so uncertain and 
changeable a medium of heat. In fact., it must be admitted that, a 
bed of soil resting upon a platform above a heated chamber, is very 
liable to become parched; and it must rapidly lose all its heat, un¬ 
less fires be kept up in every season. 
Early in the last spring, I received some seeds of Asiatic melons : 
I sowed a few in pots, and having no other fitting situation for the 
plants, I finally turned the seedlings out of the pots with their balls 
entire, and placed them in this bed of inappropriate soil. Among 
the plants, was one of the striped Housainee, and this was placed at 
the east end of the pit, close to its wall, and not far above the flue, 
near its. first turn to go along the front. Upon the covering tiles of 
the flue, without the pit, I caused a little cistern to be made of bricks, 
laid in roman 'cement. The cistern was intended to contain water, 
and yield vapour to the atmosphere of the house ; it therefore was 
cemented within; and as the tiles of the flue, and the end wall of 
the pit, formed, as far as it extended, two of the surfaces of the cis- 
