20 
watery flesh containing in the centre a sort of network 
filled with flat seeds. The plants grow and enlarge in a 
marvellously short time under a hot sun, and when trained 
over a frame, their noble leaves form a most delightful 
shelter from the sun, so that we can well understand how 
Jonah enjoyed the protection of his Goui'd and mourned 
for the loss of it. The cool wateriness of the fruit like¬ 
wise renders it most refreshing in hot countries, and in 
Italy, huge slices of the water melon, foi'm the chief 
food of some of the poor in summer. The Arabs live much 
upon melons, and grow pumpkins for feeding their cattle 
— and a pumpkin pie is the favorite national dish in 
the United states — in fact wherever the sun is hot, this 
reservoir of cool fresh watery pulp is sure to be found 
springing up abundantly. — The hard rind is also very 
useful, it often grows much larg-er than a man’s head, and 
when the inside has been scarped out, it is filled with sand 
and left to harden in the sun, when it becomes a useful 
vessel, capable of containing water, and called a calabash. 
Our summer is not long enough for the growth of these 
plants without the help of a hot bed, where the young 
plants may be sheltered from the early frosts, but by this 
means we are enabled to raise vegetable marrows for 
eating boiled with meat. CUCUMBERS, Plate XSVIII (a), 
which are of a curious lengthened form, and covered with 
row's of prickles when young, though these smooth down 
as the fruit ripens and turns yellow. — Our use for them 
is long before this however, we eat them just before the 
seeds begin to form hard and ci'isp, and dividing them into 
thin slices, eat them with pepper and vinegar. As soon 
as the seed is formed the fruit becomes bitter. 
The MELON (6) is even tenderer than the cucumber and requi¬ 
res very careful attendance. 
It is full of pale green or salmon coloui’ed flesh, most delicious 
to the taste, but of which a large quantity is injurious in 
our cold climates, though it is so great a delight and bles¬ 
sing to those who live in the hotter countries where it 
has been placed by providence. 
The fruits of hot countries are for the most part very insipid 
and tasteless, as the sun would ferment any acid which 
they contained, unless they had a very strong double coat, 
such as that of the orange. Therefore it is only in the 
temperate zones that the pleasant, delicately flavoured, 
slightly acid fruits belong, and these in great measure 
belong to the same class as the l-ose. They have many 
stamens, many styles, five loosely fastened petals, five 
calyx leaves, solidly attached to the receptacle, not fal¬ 
ling off, like those of the poisonous poppy race, but las¬ 
ting as long as the fruit holds together. 
The STRAWBERRY (Plate XXIX a), is the best, as it is the 
hardiest. The mountain side, where it is covered with 
snow in the winter is its favorite place, and there it 
climbs with its multitudinous runners, that root them¬ 
selves wherever they can find soil, and put out their 
jagged trefoil leaves, and small white blossoms, containing 
a round germ, bristling with styles. As the blossom falls 
off this germ becomes a fleshy crimson fruit, bearing the 
little seeds outside it. The woodside, the moorland bank, 
the edges of the mountain torrent all bear their delicious 
fruit, and many and many a child l'emembers the delight 
of gathering the wfild straw'berry, as it hangs in red clus¬ 
ters on the stem, bearing fruit and flowers both at once. 
The care of Gardenex-s has enlarged the straw'berry con¬ 
siderably, but nothing has ever been able to make even 
the delicious red berry of our Gardens equal in flavour 
to the strawberry of the Alpine hills or the Norwegian 
valley; a thorough child of the mountain, it flourishes 
indeed, but loses its peculiar charm under attendance in 
the cultivated garden. 
It was the curse upon Adam that the Thorn and the Thistle 
should follow man every w'here, and therefore wherever man 
has set his foot, there is the BRAMBLE (b) with its trailing 
boughs, armed with stout hooked spines, and the very 
rib of its cinquefoil leaves beset with shai'p thorns. Yet 
mercy has oi'dained that this fiercely armed foe should like¬ 
wise be a friend, and the flowers of the Bramble give place 
to some of the most refreshing and pleasant of fruits. — 
Every child knows the change of feeling when the clin¬ 
ging bramble comes in early Autumn to be greeted with 
delight as a blackberry bush, and little are scratches, and 
torn frocks regarded when such a prize is in view as the 
bunch in the picture (6), with the glossy black of the 
ripe berries contrasting with the bright red of the unripe, 
and here and there a pearly white blossom still lingering 
among the evergreen leaves. The seeds are enveloped 
in a pulpy covering, beneath which the receptacle har¬ 
dens and dries up, so as to be pulled out w'hen the fruit 
is eaten. 
The RASPBERRY (6), is the bramble of Mount Ida, and very 
like the blackberry, except in being red instead of black, 
and in not having evergreen leaves. It is sometimes 
found W'ild, but the fruit is then very sour. There is a 
large and notable race all of w'hich may be classed as 
the Plum tribe, of which our w'ild Blackthorn is the worst 
and least useful fruit. 
In all of these the germ is below the flower, and after the blos¬ 
som is over loses the calyx, and grows into around, brightly 
coloured fruit, with a firm rind, a mark cleaving it half 
way round, containing a quantity of pulp more or less 
acid, and enclosing a stone consisting of a hard w'oody case, 
within which lies a kernel the real seed, white like a nut, 
and tastiixg, of Prussic acid. The wild Sloe is a hard purple 
thing, such as no one will eat but the village boys who 
will eat any thing, but cultivation has done much for the 
whole race, seeds have been sown in good soil, and va¬ 
rieties of softer texture and sweeter flavour have grown 
up, and though their seeds are always liable to return to 
the sharp wild kind, yet it has been found that by graf¬ 
ting, namely by cutting off the wild branches, and cun- 
ningly inserting within the bark a growing bough of the 
good sort, that the stock may be made to produce good 
fruit, of the new variety. 
The CHERRY (a) is one of these plum like fruits, perhaps 
bearing the most beautifnl blossom of all, for the white 
garlands are glorious under the May sunshine, and even 
prettier than the bright crimson fruit, which is however 
as fair to look on as good to eat. 
“Merrily Merrily we shall live now.” 
“Under the cherries that hang on the bough.” 
well may the Hamburg children say. In the year 1432. 
the city of Hamburg was besieged by some of the Bohe¬ 
mians who had risen against the Emperor, and the citizens 
had been brought to great straits when a man named 
Wolf, proposed that all the little children from 4 to 7 
years old, should be dressed in mourning and sent out 
to beg the enemy to have mercy on their parents. The 
rebels were so much touched that they promised to be¬ 
friend the city, and gave the children a feast upon cher¬ 
ries, after which the party l’etux-ned, laughing under 
wreaths of the crimson fruit, and shouting out their good 
news. In honor of this happy day, the feast of cherries 
is still kept at Hamburg every year, when the children 
go through the streets with garlands of cherries It is 
said that the name of cherry is taken from Cerasus in 
Asia minor, whence the Roman General Lucullus brought 
it into Europe, and that Greek island Cerigo is so called 
from its cherry trees. 
Plate XXX, THE PLUM (a), is the black Thorn magnified by 
cultivation into a beautiful purple globe, with tiny scales 
of wax closely covering it, and giving it the softness that 
we call the bloom. — The green gage is the best English 
sort, but none are so good as those dried in the south of 
France and sent over in boxes. 
THE PEACH ( b ) is a plum with a delicate pink blossom, and 
a downy pink and white fruit, full of delicious pulp. — It 
grows wild in Persia, but \yas long ago brought to Europe 
whei'e it grows easily, and in North America bears fruit 
in such profusion as to be used for fattening pigs. Neither 
it nor the smooth nectarine are good without much care. 
THE APRICOT (cl), is of a rich yellow colour, and superior 
in taste, though less juicy than the peach, generally much 
smaller too — (that in the picture is a monster). It is 
native to Ai'menia, and is grown on the slopes of the Hi¬ 
malayas whence it is sent all over India. Here, it is much 
grown about Oxford, and is eaten fresh, or preserved, as 
one of the most delicious of fruits. All these are trees; 
having the vessels of their stems composed with a hard 
substance called lignine, which forms wood. These are 
full of sap, and are like little pipes running the whole 
length of the stem, with rays however crossing them 
horizontally, to carry the nourishment from the bark to 
