warm border, if u mild season, and let them be shielded with mats during 
nights and bad weather, or into a frame or slender hot-bed, to bring them 
more forward. According to their progress in April or May, transplant 
them into the open garden, from six to twelve inches asunder, to remain for 
heading . 77 
To save seed.—''' Leave or transplant either some of the early .vinter- 
standing plants, in March or April, or of the forwardest spring-sown crops, 
in May, or the beginning of June, fifteen inches asunder. They will produce 
ripe seed in August or September. 77 — Abercrombie. 
Use .—The use of lettuce, as a cooling and agreeable salad, is vrell known; 
it is also a useful ingredient in soups. It has medical properties, similar to 
those of opium. The refuse leaves are said to be good food for geese, ducks, 
and swine 
MELON. 
Cucumis melo , and Cucurbita citrillus. — Melon , Fr.— Melone , 
Ger. 
There are but two species, the melon with a rough or embroidered coat, 
called musk-melon, (cucumis melo,) and the melon with a smooth skin, 
called water-melon, (cucurbita citrullus.) Of each of the species there are 
many varieties. Mr. RusselPs Catalogue contains the following;— 
CUCUMIS MF.LO. 
Green citron, (finest variety,) 
Murray’s pine apple, 
Persian, 
Nutmeg, 
Minorca, 
Large cantaleupe, 
Pomegranate. 
CUCURBITA CITRULLUS. 
Carolina water, 
Long Island do. 
Apple-seeded d >. [early.) 
Seed .—Those who wish to procure melons in perfection, must be careful, 
in the first place, to procure good seed; secondly, to plant them remote from 
an inferior sort, as well as from cucumbers, squashes, gourds, and pumpkins; 
as degeneracy will infallibly be the consequence of inattention to these direc¬ 
tions. Abercrombie says, “ Seed under the age of two years is apt to run 
too much to vine, and show only male flow’ers; but new seed may be mel¬ 
lowed by being carried in the pocket a fortnight or more, till the heat of the 
body has dried and hardened it. Seed twenty years old has been known Ig 
grow, and make fruitful plants; but seed which has been kept three or foul 
years is quite old enough, and less likely to fail than older . 77 
Soil .—Abercrombie says, “The melon will succeed in any unexhausted 
