May 8. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
91 
I have them now in foliage, and they are very fine 
indeed. Fronds lanceolate, two feet high, pinnated, 
hairy underneath; pinnae lance-shaped, stemless, or 
nearly so, and cut at the edges. Stems scaly, and root- 
stock thick and creeping. Increased by division. It is 
the only one of the genus that is hardy. 
T. Appleby. 
(To be continued.) 
DISEASES IN MELONS AND CUCUMBERS. 
A gob respondent, “ W. W.,” writes to us as follows: 
—“ Last year, my Cucumbers (both in the frames and in 
the open air) looked strong, and promising for a good 
crop, until they began to bear, when, sometimes one or 
two branches, but oftener a whole plant, suddenly 
withered and died, without any apparent cause ; for when 
taken up the roots appeared quite sound. 
“ Also, my Melons went brown and rotten at the root 
about the time they begin to set their fruit. 
“ I sowed the Melons at the end of March, and the 
Cucumbers from the end of March to the end of May, 
and the soil I used was about equal parts soil from a 
light pasture, and black rotten soil of many years accu¬ 
mulating from under a wood-fent, with about a tenth 
part of fowls’ dung, well mixed together. 
“The hotbeds were made of horse-duug, several 
times turned, and covered nine or ten inches deep with 
the above soil. 
“ If you can suggest anything to prevent the above 
diseases again attacking my plants, you will greatly 
oblige. 
“As I-intend using some tan this year, I should like 
to know if old, or new, or mixed will make the most 
durable hotbed, and how it should be prepared before 
using ? 
“ Also, which is the best aspect, south or east, for 
hotbeds to be made ? and should I benefit my Cu¬ 
cumbers by applying liquid-manure? 
“I have some Cucumbers of the following sorts: — 
Cuthill’s Black Spine, Sion House, Windsor Prize, 
Kenyon’s Tree Bearer, aud White Turkey. Which are 
the most prolific? And which the largest sorts?” 
Like most things, Cucumbers and Melons are now 
and then attacked by disease, arising from some cause 
not always apparent to ordinary observers. 
Some years ago, my Cucumbers were attacked by a 
disease which might be called a vegetable small-pox, 
the fruit presenting a mass of running ulcers; generally, 
each spine formed an outlet for a quantity of transparent 
gummy matter, which exuded, then formed offensive- 
looking drops of the size of peas, or larger, and some¬ 
times a collection of these tumours rendered the fruit 
quite useless. Tu fact, after the fruit was once attacked 
it was no longer in a fit state for table. The plant, at 
the same time, seemed healthy enough, but after the 
disease once attacked it the very smallest fruit became 
affected, as well as full grown ones, and were speedily 
rendered useless. I will not here repeat the experi¬ 
ments I made to overcome this disease ; one thing, how¬ 
ever, I may mention, that I imagined it arose from the 
plant imbibing some improper juice from the soil, so I 
changed that, as far as it seemed possible to ao, by 
planting some in a compost in which lime or mortar- 
rubbish existed to a great extent; in others soot; in 
others wood-ashes ; but all to no purpose; and the season 
of 1850 passed away with my having very few good 
fruit; those out-of-doors being affected quite as bad as 
the frame ones. 
Since then that disease has not shown itself in any 
virulent form, although it lingered on a little the fol¬ 
lowing year. Melons were not affected with it, neither 
was the Vegetable Marrow, growing close adjoining the 
ridges on which the out-door Cucumbers were planted. 
Melons, however, are sometimes attacked by other 
diseases; and one they are liable to is a hasty decay at 
the collar, whereby a previously healthy plant is sud¬ 
denly carried off, and the hopes of the grower blighted 
for that season. I think it must have been some¬ 
thing of that sort which a correspondent complains of, 
for now aud then a healthy Melon plant will die off 
from causes similar to what causes sudden deaths in the 
animal kingdom; yet there is often some other agent 
at work when a Melon plant dies. Thus the Wire- 
worm will sometimes suddenly gnaw assunder the 
main roots. The only remedy for this is to make sure 
that there is no Wire-worm in the soil, by having it 
placed a few days in some place where the fowls have 
access to it, and to encourage their industry in ex¬ 
amining, scatter a little corn amongst it, and turn it 
over once, or oftener. Where this is impracticable, or 
where the beds are already made up, and it is expected 
some exist, inserting a few Carrots in different places 
over it will attract them, and the Carrots beiDg ex¬ 
amined now and then, they can easily be killed. 
Our correspondent says — “The soil I used was 
about ccjual'parts from a light pasture, and black rotten 
mould irom a wood-yard, with about a tenth part of 
fowl’s dung.” Such a compost is certainly better 
adapted to Cucumbers than Melons, the latter not re¬ 
quiring so light and rich a soil. Yet his Cucumbers 
seem to suffer as well, aud, most probably, it arises 
from the presence of insect in some shape or other, 
contained, perhaps, in the decayed woody matter. If 
he has any frames now in working order in which the 
above compost forms the staple, let him plant small 
Carrots in different places over it. Ifiace also a few 
cooked Potatoes in small pots surrounded by moss. A 
few Lettuce plants might also be introduced, and the 
whole examined, from time to time, to see if anything 
alive adheres to them. A toad or frog also might be 
introduced; and be careful in giving aud taking away 
air, keeping up a nice temperature, and in other re¬ 
spects adopting all the methods calculated to ensure 
success, and most likely the evil will be overcome, 
unless, as I say, it arises from atmospheric causes, in 
which case the remedy is a more difficult one. Never¬ 
theless, we would not have our correspondent to despair; 
if he perseveres, he will assuredly succeed in arresting 
the evil. And what Melons he has occasion to plant out 
after this, let him use a stiffer soil; such as is generally 
regarded as producing good wheat. I have, for an ex¬ 
periment, grown Melons well on a loam stiff enough to 
make bricks, mixed with a little finer matter, but the 
mixture was purely mechanical; they were not blanched, 
the large lumps of loam retaining their tenacity even 
after the crop was cleared away. Yet it was surprising 
to see how the Melon roots clasped these apparently 
worthless lumps of impenetrable matter, and the crop 
was as satisfactory as could well be; but I do not re¬ 
commend such an extreme soil, though a sound, strong soil 
is better than a light, rich one, the latter favouring the 
production of vine rather than fruit. 
TAN versus STABLE MANURE. 
Our correspondent also asks if tan be preferable to 
hot dung; and, if so, which is the way to use it ? This is 
rather a difficult question ; but if good, well-prepared 
dung is to be had, 1 would prefer that to tan for Melons, 
as there is often an uncertainty about the heating of 
tan, and I am far from advising its general adoption, 
unless in cases where it can be depended upon for 
giving a nice, agreeable heat; but somehow or other, the 
recent modes of using this article in the tanning 
process has certaiuly been fatal to its fermenting 
powers afterwards, for it does not heat so well as it used 
