THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
209 
which has flowers at times seven inches in diameter, with 
a sweet ripe-apple odor. This kind costs 75 cents a root. 
A most beautiful and deliciously fragrant species is the 
yellow water-lily, Nymphceci flava. The flowers are of a 
bright golden-yellow and are scented like the blossoms 
of the locust tree. This variety requires a warm, sunny 
corner of the pond. The roots cost 50 cents each. A 
pigmy lily is the dwarf Chinese water-lily, Nymphaa 
pygmcea , very sweetly odorous, but with flowers no larger 
than half a dollar, which open dt noon and close at night. 
There are some other kinds having white aud pink flowers 
which are natives of England. 
The queen of the lily pond is Nelumbium speciosum. 
This beautiful plant is the lotus of Egypt and India, and 
the seed of it is the sacred bean. It is, however, entirely 
hardy and produces its leaves 30 inches across. Its buds 
are at first creamy white and bright rose in color, and in 
form like enormous tea-rose buds, and then gradually ex¬ 
pand like a tulip, until at maturity they spread to a width 
of 12 or 13 inches, and diffuse their delightful fragrance 
far and wide. Nelumbium luteum, or the yellow lotus, is 
a native plant, not equal in beauty to the speciosum , but a 
noble ornament to the pond, with its scarcely smaller 
leaves and its hundreds of buds and score of open flow¬ 
ers, all exhibited at the same time. The flowers are of 
a sulphur yellow color and as large as a quart bowl. 
Several other varieties of foreign nelumbiums are culti¬ 
vated, which have beautifully colored flowers. There are 
many other desirable aquatic plants described in the cata¬ 
logues of the florists who make this class of plants a 
special culture, but space is inadequate to mention them. 
A few of them, selected according to the means and de¬ 
sires of the owner of a pond, would certainly add a charm 
to any country home, which would be all the more pleas¬ 
ing because of its rarity. Even one native lily would be 
a source of pleasure, and would be a beginning which 
would lead to further progress in this delightful culture.— 
Weekly Times. 
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 
What is a Cantaloupe? 
T the recent Convention of the American Seed Trade 
Association, an informal discussion arose as to what 
is a cantaloupe and what are its distinctive characteristics 
in comparison to the musk-melon. If differences there 
are, no one could define them, neither could any one say 
that he could furnish seed of the cantaloupe with any as¬ 
surance of giving his customer the variety he wished. 
The nomenclature of vegetables and plants is sadly 
mixed. The same pea is sold under a dozen different 
names, usually prefixed by that of the dealer offering it; 
and what is true of the pea is true of many other popular 
plants and flowers. Dealers not unfrequently change the 
names or reintroduce some old variety, “ the same with 
intent to deceive.” 
This is not so, however, with the cantaloupe, whose 
family history is so little known that, as far as possible, 
we will give it. The botanical name of the cantaloupe 
and all of the musk-melons is Cucumis melo ; that of the 
cucumber is Cucumis salivus, and, of the water-melon 
Cucurbita citrullus , all of which belong to the natural 
order Cucurbitacece. The early history of the melon is 
very vague and unsatisfactory, it being always classed 
with the cucumber. Gerarde , in his quaint old herbal, 
published 1629, says ; “The melon is certainly a kinde of 
cowcumber, it doth so neare resemble it, both in the man¬ 
ner of his growing, having rough trailing branches, rough 
uneven leaves and yellow flowers; after which come the 
fruit, which is rounder, thicker, bigger, more ragged, and 
spotted on the outside then the cowcumber, of a russet 
color, and green underneath, which when it groweth' full 
ripe, will change a little yellowish, being as deep furrowed 
as they, and besides having chaps or rifts in divers places 
of the rinde ; the inward hard substance is yellow, which 
only is eaten ; the seede which is bigger, and a little yel¬ 
lower then the cowcumber, lying in the middle onely 
among the moister pulpe ; the smell and changing of his 
color, fore-shew their ripeness to them that are experi¬ 
enced ; the root is long, with many fibres at it. 
“ They have beene formerly only eaten by great person¬ 
ages, because the fruit was not only delicate but rare ; 
and therefore divers were brought from France, and since 
were noursed up by the kings’ or noblemen’s gardeners 
onely, to serve for their masters’ delight; but now, di¬ 
vers others, that have skill and convenience of ground for 
them, doe plant them and make them more common. 
“ They paire away the outer rinde, and cut out the in¬ 
ward pulpe where the seede lyeth, slice the yellow, firm, 
inward rind or substance, and so eate it with salt and 
pepper (and good store of wine, or else it will hardly 
digest), for this is firmer, and hath not the moisture in it 
that the cowcumbers have. It is also more delicate, and 
of more worth, which recompense the paine.” 
The melon is a native of the milder regions of Asia, but 
was introduced into Europe before the time of Pliny 
(50 A. D.), as that writer, when treating of gourds and 
cucumbers, after mentioning that “when the cucumber 
acquires a very considerable volume it is known to us as 
the ‘ pepo ’ ’’ (supposed to be the pumpkin), adds, “ Only 
of late a cucumber of an entirely new shape has been 
produced in Campania, having just the form of a quince. 
The name given to this variety is ‘ melopepo.’ ” The 
m elon had also been known to the Greeks, who were ac¬ 
customed to soak the seeds in milk and honey before 
sowing them, and even to put them in earth surrounded 
with rose-leaves, believing that when thus cradled in 
sweetness, the fruit which they would bear could not but 
be mild and fragrant. The great Baber has the credit of 
introducing it to his subjects in Hindostan, where it now 
abounds, it having been indigenous only to the milder 
parts of Asia. At what period it was brought into Eng¬ 
land is a matter of geat uncertainty, as is the introduction 
