100 
THE STRIPED HOUSAINEE MELON. 
fine true leaves, two inches in diameter. The pot it was transferred 
to, was twelve inches broad at the rim, and of equal depth, both in¬ 
ternal measure; it was a sea-kale pot inverted, the lower orifice six 
inches wide, was closed with a circular grass turf, eight inches broad 
and above an inch thick; the pot was plunged into the leaves (upon 
which the grass surface rested) close to the back wall of the pit. 
It was next filled with a soil composed of five parts of chopped 
turf, with its herbage, and one part of the recent dung of poultry, 
well incorporated together. The mould of the turf was a sandy haz¬ 
el loam, which, chemically viewed, consisted of a large portion of si¬ 
liceous (gravelly) sand, and perhaps one-third of argillaceous or 
clayey earth, with a small quantity of chalk, (carbonate of time.) 
It derived its hazel colour from a sub-oxide of iron, of ocherous qua¬ 
lity. This colour was gradually changed to a dark grey or black, 
partly by the abstraction of some of the oxygen of the iron, during 
the decomposition of the vegetable and animal matters, and partly 
by the formation of carbon, resulting from that decomposition. 
The soil being thus prepared, and its temperature raised by the 
warmth of the leaf-bed, and by that radiated from the side of the 
* flue within the pit, the young plant was removed from the small pot, 
and deposited in a hole made in the centre of the large one : the ball 
was entire, the roots having insinuated themselves into the hay. 
The soil of the great pot was then brought up to, and pressed firmly 
about the ball and lower part of the stem; a slight watering was giv¬ 
en with water at about 70 deg. and in a few days the surface was 
covered over with sand. 
Training. —The plant did not shrink, it soon naturalised itself to 
the new soil, and grew with rapidity. A stake was placed in the 
pot, and secured to a cross-rail, that ran horizontally over the shelf 
of the pit, twelve inches below the glass, and three feet in front of 
the back wall of the house. From this cross-rail, small laths were 
laid to the wall in a slope corresponding with that of the lights; and 
other laths were laid across, so as to form an open trellis-work, with 
spaces wide enough to allow the free use of the hands in tying up 
the shoots. The plant was trained up, and secured to the stake till 
it reached the cross-rail, and every lateral and tendril was pinched 
off during this perpendicular growth. 
May 1 5th, it had fourteen clear joints, and then, just above the 
cross-rail, the shoot was stopped about the tenth or eleventh joint: 
all the leaves upon the stem were most carefully retained. 
Three lateral shoots were soon produced; and on the 26th of 
May, five fruits were swelling. Two of these were on a lower shoot 
