Juno 5 , 1886. 
THE HARDENING WORLD 
shades of green, from the lightest to the darkest tints, 
almost black, and sometimes these are shown in 
streakings on the same fruits. When well ripened 
some of these are very bright, and if the plants are 
trained in a suitable manner, they are ornamental in 
no ordinary degree. The species or varieties with 
small or moderate-sized fruits are the best for general 
cultivation, and one of the prettiest is the Gooseberry 
Gourd, Cucumis prophelarum or grossularioides, for it 
is known under both names. This produces small oval 
fruits about the size and shape of a Gooseberry, striped 
regularly from end to end with green and yellow when 
ripe, but light and dark green in its immature state. 
It produces its fruit very freely, and is very attractive 
when grown in pots and trained to a trellis or suitable 
stakes. Queen Anne’s Pocket Melon is also cultivated 
for decorative purposes, but bears a much larger fruit 
than the preceding, like a flattened Orange, and 
striped with deep yellow. It is usually employed to 
furnish an ornamental dish for the dessert, but its 
quality is not sufficiently good to recommend it for 
eating as compared with the finely flavoured varieties 
we now possess. The Turk’s Cap Gourd is one of the 
most showy and brightest in colour, and with several 
other forms it is shown in our illustrations. 
Most of these ornamental plants can now be obtained 
from the leading seedsmen or from others who make 
a speciality of them. They are either annuals or are 
best treated as such, and raised from seed every year 
in the same way as Cucumber or Melon seeds are 
germinated, the hardier sorts like the Pumpkin being 
treated similarly to Vegetable Marrow and planted out 
at the same time, when all danger of frost is past. The 
others mostly require the temjmrature of a warm house, 
except in the height of summer, when they will stand 
in conservatories or out of doors ; they all need a 
substantial loamy soil and liberal supplies of water 
during growth, with top-dressings of manure or appli¬ 
cations of liquid manure when the fruits are swelling 
as they are gross feeders, and the large-fruited sorts in 
particular require generous support. In large houses the 
plants are commonly grown in pots, the stems secured 
to upright stakes to the height of 4 ft. or more and 
then trained horizontally so that the fruits are pendant 
and can be readily seen. In smaller houses and for the 
smaller-fruited varieties, a trellis such as that illustrated 
in our engraving below, is the best as it occupies but 
little space and permits the growths and fruits .being 
fully exposed to light. Quite apart from the merely 
decorative gourds, however, many a useful crop of 
Melons can be obtained from plants trained on similar 
trellises, which can be varied in height to suit the 
convenience of the cultivator. Liberal syringing will 
be necessary for all plants of the character named, 
thinning the growths where too crowded, removing 
those that are weakly and shortening those bearing 
fruits. The latter must, in the case of the larger- 
fruited sorts, also be thinned, but the small ones need 
very little of this attention. To ensure the fruits 
setting well it is better to fertilize them artificially, as 
some of the species are rather uncertain fruiters in 
cultivation without that assistance. Very few difficulties 
will, however, be found with the gourds, and wherever 
the curious forms of vegetation are prized a small 
collection might well be grown. 
-- 
ANDROMEDA. 
Most of our readers versed in horticultural botany, 
know that Linnaeus gave the name, Andromeda, to a 
plant he saw in his northern tour, because some circum¬ 
stances connected with the situation in which he saw 
the plant, reminded him of the ancient story of Andro¬ 
meda. As these plants are well-known in America, 
which is their chief home, we give a modern version of 
the ancient tale, as we find it in a floating “exchange.’’ 
“When Cepheus was king in Ethiopia, his wife, 
Cassiopeia, who was herself a famous belle, boasted that 
her daughter, Andromeda, was more beautiful than the 
Nereids. The gods of those days had precious little 
patience with human vanity, and the goddesses, par¬ 
ticularly, were very jealous of the charms of their 
mortal sisters. Accordingly, when the fifty submarine 
beauties, who answered to the name of Nereids, heard 
633 
of Cassiopeia’s impious boast, they were indignant, and 
acting, it may be, upon the maxim, 1 the greater the 
truth the greater the libel,' they besought Neptune, the 
ruler of the sea, to wreak vengeance upon Cassiopeia 
and her fair daughter. Neptune, who was always ready 
for a shindy, promptly proceeded to drown out the 
whole of Ethiopia. The despairing inhabitants, driven 
from one refuge to another by the advancing waters, 
went, after the fashion of the time, to the oracle of 
Jupiter Ammon, and the ungallant god told them the 
only hope they had was in chaining Andromeda to a 
rock, and leaving her there to be devoured by a sea 
monster. The fact that the unhappy girl was a princess 
did not avail to save her, and she was dragged to the 
edge of the sea, chains were riveted upon her wrists and 
ankles, and fastened to a rock, she was left to her awful 
fate. 
“ Presently the monster appeared advancing to enjoy 
his feast. Sparks of fire flew from his distended 
nostrils as he eagerly sniffed the air, and his eyes 
gleamed with ferocious delight when he beheld his 
fair victim afar off, straining at her cruel chains in an 
agony of terror. The monster swiftly clove the waves, 
leaving a track of boiling foam in his wake. Rigid with 
fear, and unable to withdraw her eyes from the frightful 
creature, the beautiful Andromeda stood, her arms ex¬ 
tended by the chains, and her feet immersed in the 
waves that his approach had raised, while he paused a 
moment to contemplate his entrancing prey. 
“But there were other eyes fixed upon Andromeda, 
and her charms had gone straight to the heart of a 
champion of whose very existence she was unaware. 
The high-born and valorous Perseus was just then re¬ 
turning through the air from his famous expedition 
against the Gorgons. In his hand he held the head of 
Medusa, the mere sight of which was capable of turning 
the beholder into stone, and which he had severed with 
a single stroke of the diamond dagger, lent to him by 
one of the gods. Perseus took in the situation at a 
glance, and he was not the sort of person to be in¬ 
timidated by any kind of monster, especially when a 
captivating princess was to be rescued. According to 
