and seven inches in diameter. Skin pale green, mottled Flesh of a reddish salmon colour,

with dark green.

tender, juicy, sweet, and high flavoured.

13. SILVER ROCK. Hort. Soc. Cat. No. 25.

Fruit middle-sized, oblate, about five inches each way. Skin greenish yellow, with a few small warts, and orange-coloured blotches. Flesh pale salmon colour, sweet, and well flavoured.

14. SMOOTH SCARLET-Fleshed. No. 29.

Hort. Trans. Vol. iv. p. 320.

Hort. Soc. Cat.

Fruit nearly round, occasionally inclining to oval, about five inches in diameter. Skin greenish yellow, spitted with small green spots, and more or less netted on its surface. Flesh bright scarlet, firm, and high flavoured.

2. With Green Flesh and moderately thick Rind.

15. GREEN-fleshed. Hort. Soc. Cat. No. 9. Fruit roundish, flattened at both ends, five inches long, and four inches in diameter. Skin smooth, of a pale silvery green, slightly netted. ceedingly sweet, and high flavoured: to three pounds; a very excellent melon. 16. ITALIAN GREEN-FLESHED. Hort. Trans. Vol.iv. p. 319.

Flesh green, exweight from two

Fruit small, round, or somewhat oval, about four inches and a half in diameter. Skin pale greenish white. Flesh dark green, but pale towards the inside next the seeds, about an inch thick, soft, juicy, very sweet, and high flavoured: weight from two to three pounds.

3. With Green or White Flesh, and thin Rind.

17. DAREE MELON. Hort. Trans. Vol. vi.

p. 557. Fruit oval or ovate, about nine inches long, and six inches in diameter. Skin closely mottled with dark sea-green upon a pale ground, rather widely netted, but is subject to become smooth. Flesh white, thick, crisp, and melting; when fully ripened very sweet, but rather insipid if imperfectly matured: it is always, however, cool and pleasant.

This is a good deal like the next sort; but the rind, when netted, exhibits coarse reticulations. The principal differences are in the stalk, which is two inches and a half long, and in the flesh which is white, not green. It is a finer fruit, but less highly flavoured.

18. GEREE MELON. Ostrich Egg. Ib. 557.

Hort. Trans. Vol. vi. P. 556.

A handsome green fruit. In shape it is oval or ovate, eight inches long, and four inches and a half in diameter. The skin is closely mottled with dark sea-green, upon a pale ground, and is either netted or not; in the former case, the meshes are very close, by which character it may be readily known from the Daree. When well ripened, various numerous longitudinal fissures appear upon the rind, which has sometimes from nine to eleven short dark-green streaks, radiating from the apex. Stalk very short. Flesh one inch and a half or two inches thick, bright green, melting, very sweet, and highly flavoured.

The Geree melon is a good bearer, but tender. 19. GREEN HOOSAINEE. Hort. Trans. Vol. vi.

p. 560.

Fruit handsome egg-shaped, five inches long, and four inches in diameter. Skin, when unripe, of a very deep green, but when matured, of a fine, even, light

green, with a regularly netted surface, which, on the exposed side, becomes rather yellow. Flesh pale greenish white, tender and delicate, full of an highly-perfumed, pleasant, sweet juice. The rind is very thin; the seeds unusually large.

This is a variety of much excellence; it is a great bearer, and hardier than any of the Persian melons except the Large Germek.

20. LARGE GERMEK. Hort. Trans. Vol. vi. p.

558.

A very handsome ribbed fruit, generally weighing five or six pounds, shaped like a depressed sphere, usually six inches deep, and from seven to nine inches in diameter. At the apex is situated a corona, or circular scar, varying from an inch to two inches in diameter. Skin sea-green, closely netted. Flesh one inch and threequarters or two inches thick, clear green, becoming paler towards the inside, firm, juicy, very rich, and high fla

voured.

'This is an excellent variety, ripening early, and speedily arriving at a bearing state. It is very prolific, and produces larger fruit than any of the Persian melons, and generally produces a second crop spontaneously. 21. MELON OF KEISING. Hort. Trans. Vol. vi. p. 555.

A beautiful egg-shaped fruit, eight inches long, five inches wide in the middle, and six inches wide at the base. Skin of a pale lemon colour, minutely speckled with paler dots, regularly netted all over, with a few cracks lengthwise. Flesh from one inch and a half to two inches and a quarter thick, nearly white, flowing copiously with a cool juice, extremely delicate, sweet, and high flavoured, similar in texture to a well-ripened Beurré pear.

It resembles the next sort, but differs in being closely netted all over, instead of being smooth.

22. SWEET MELON OF ISPAHAN. Hort. Trans. Vol. iii. p. 116.

Fruit ovate, from eight to twelve inches long. Skin nearly quite smooth, of a deep sulphur colour. Flesh white, extending about half way to its centre, crisp, and sugary, rich weight five to six pounds. very

SECOND DIVISION.

WINTER MELONS.

23. DAMPSHA MELON. Hort. Trans. Vol. iv. p. 211. Zamsky. Ib.

First fruit in the season nearly cylindrical, bluntly rounded at both ends. The skin varies from pale yellowish green to intense dark olive, and the whole fruit is prominently netted. Flesh bright and deep green near the skin, pale towards the centre, quite melting, and of excellent flavour. The later fruit becomes more pointed at the ends, and lose much of their reticulation on the surface, the dark green of the skin becoming darker.

24. GREEN VALENCIA. Hort. Trans. Vol. iii. p. 116. t. 3.

Winter Melon.

Ib.

Fruit oval, with pointed extremities, very slightly ribbed. Skin dark green dotted with very light green, sometimes a little netted. Flesh white, becoming pale straw colour as it ripens, firm, saccharine, and juicy, and although not rich is pleasant.

The last two sorts possess the valuable property of keeping till the winter months, if hung up by the stalk, or in nets in a dry room.

The cultivation of melons in this country within the last fifty years has been so general, and their management so well understood, that it would appear unnecessary to treat particularly, and in detail, of what may be.

looked upon as an almost every day practice, not only in the gardens of the opulent but in those of their more humble neighbours.

The main requisites for melon growing are plenty of dung, proper soil, and good frames or pits. The hotbeds for melons require to be much more substantial than those for cucumbers, because they are a much longer time in coming to maturity. Early cucumbers are cut by many gardeners in six or seven weeks after the time of sowing the seeds; but melons require twelve or fourteen weeks for the early sorts, and much longer for the large-sized ones.

Small melons, which are those always forced for early crops, do not require to have the bed more than four feet deep, when settled ready to receive the plants: for the large sorts, the bed ought to be five feet at the least, and in both cases the bed should be from two to three feet both longer and wider than the frame.

The mould for hills, on which the young plants are to be turned out, should be a light rich loam; but when the plants are earthed up, the soil should be a good strong loam from an old pasture, having the flag taken along with it, adding a sixth part of rotten dung, and turning it over three or four times before it is used.

In preparing the bed, care must be taken that the dung has been well fermented by turning it over two or three times, and when used, if a quantity of oak or chesnut leaves be added and well mixed with it, the heat will not be so great at first, and it will continue much longer.

In making up the bed, the ends and sides should always be made the most compact and firm, by beating them down with the fork, and occasionally treading them so wide as to extend six inches within the frame; by this means the middle of the bed will settle the most,