772 
THE PERSIAN MELON. 
consumption should he gathered at once, by which means we can 
enjoy them for a greater length of time. Autumn apples and pears 
should be gathered eight days before they are ripe, and indeed some 
kinds never become fit for eating on the tree. If they have been ne¬ 
cessarily gathered in wet weather or early in the morning, they 
should be exposed a day to the sun to dry, and they should on no 
account be wiped; this rubs off the bloom as it is called, which when 
allowed to dry on some fruits constitutes a natural varnish, closing 
up the pores, and preventing the evaporation of the juices. They 
* 
should not be laid in heaps, which causes them to sweat and undergo 
a slight fermentation ; for fruit thus treated, if it does not spoil, gets 
dry and mealy; and hence in this country the ordinary apples, im¬ 
ported from England and the continent, are inferior to our own. The 
principal requisites for a good fruit room are, great dryness, equal¬ 
ity of temperature, and a power of excluding light. Some curious 
persons preserve fine pears by passing a thread through the stalk, 
the end of which they seal up with a drop of sealing wax, enclose 
each seperately in a cone of paper, and hang them up by the thread 
brought through the apex. Experience has also proved, that grapes 
keep better when hanging than when laid upon a table. The cut end 
should be closed with wax, which prevents exhalation. Some hang 
them by the stalk, others hy the point of the bunch, as the grapes 
are thus less pressed against each other; but it is in both cases ne¬ 
cessary to visit them from time to time, and cut off with a pair of 
scissors every berry that is mouldy or spoiled. 
A Practical Gardener. 
Newport, Isle of Wight, Aug. 3], 1832. 
ARTICLE III. 
ON THE NATURAL HISTORY AND CULTIVATION OF THE 
STRIPED HOUSAINF/E PERSIAN MELON. 
By the Author of the Domestic Gardener’s Manual. — C. M. H. S. 
FIRST PAPER. 
This is a subject of peculiar interest to me, and it is my earnest 
desire to render it the same to others; for, the fruit in question, well 
deserves the utmost attention that can, by any possibility, be bes- 
stowed upon it. Before, however, I enter upon the particular des¬ 
cription of this individual variety of the melon, I conceive I shall be 
