Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/44

 MEL

MEL

purple MelocaBus, with crooked fpires. 3. The fquSrfe creeping American MeloeaRns, with white flowers and fear- let .fruit. 4. 'J "he creeping trigonal American Melocaftus, with white flowers. 5. The fquare tree American A'lelo- caclus, with white flowers. 6. The arborefcent American Meheaftus, with ftriated very prickly leaves, white Rowers, anil yellow tuberofe fruit. 7. The very prickly American Melocaclus, with feveral globules joined together in the man- ner of the opuntia. 8. The (mall lanug'inous tuberous Ame- rican Melocaclus. 9. The fi'ngle-ftalked American \Melo- cattus, with white flowers, and blackifh purple fruit. 10. The tuberous purple American Melocaclus, with very ftfong and (harp prickles, n. The trigonal undulated American Melocaclus, with very robuft prickles, and white flowers and greenifh fruit. 12. The trigonal American Mdocatlus, with fbort prickles and white flowers, and fcarlet fruit, 13. The creeping pentangular American Melocaclus, with white flowers and red fruit. Town. In ft. p. 653.

MELOCARPUS, a word ufed by fome of the old authors to exprefs the fruit of the arijlolocbia, or bi ribwort, ufed in fome external applications. See the article Aristolochia.

MELOLANTHUS, the name of'a peculiar fort of beetle, which is found in all parts of England, and in many other countries among trees and hedges. The French call them hanneton, and we cock-chafer's^ dorrs, and by many other names. The name melolqnthus is as old as Ariftotle, and is given this crea- ture from its feeding on the bloflorns of the crab or wild ap- ple. We have, of late years, had great damages done by the grubs of thefe beetles working under ground - y but in Ire- land they have been ufed to come in fwarms, in certain years, in the beetle ftate, and have been fo terrible to this country, that the people have called them locufts. 'I he firft time they are remembered by authors to have ap- peared in this vaft abundance, in this country, was in the year 1688. They then appeared in the fouth-weft part of the county of Galway ; they appeared firft upon the coaft, and were brought by a fouth-weft wind, a wind fo common there, that it may almoft he called, the trade wind of Ire- land j from the coaft they foon fprcad over the inland parts of the county, and were fecn every where in fuch numbers, as were fcarce to be conceived. They never flirred in the day-time, but were feen covering the leaves and branches of trees and hedges, and in many places hanging down in prodi- gious clufters on one another's backs, in the manner of bees when they fwarm. As foon as the fun fet, they ufed to leave the hedges, &c. and take wing, gathering into bodies, and making a humming confufed noile like that of drums at a diftance. They fometimes formed bodies together, that darkened the air for three or more miles fquare. They flew fo low fometimes, that it was fcarce potfible for a perfon, going along, to make his way through them ; and by firiking againft the faces and necks of women and children, they did much miichief, every one leaving a mark behind it ; and thofe of this fex or age, who had been among them, came home all over bruifes.

This, however, was little to the mifchief they did the fields ; for though the middle of the fummcr was the fcafon in which they came, they had, in a few days, eaten up all the leaves of the trees fo con -pleatly, that they all looked as bare as in the depth of winter. The noife they made, while eating in vaft numbers together, was like that of fawing timber. The gardens fared no better than the hedges, for they eat up leaves, young ftalks, and fruit, and every thing that was green and foft there, and left only a parcel of naked flicks be- hind them. Many of the trees, thus {tripped, wholly pe- rifhed. Phil. Tranf. N>. 234..

MELOMELI, a word ufed by the antients to exprefs honey impregnated with quinces.

MELON, Melo, in botany, makes a diftinct genus of plants, the charaders of which are thefe : The flowers confift only of one leaf each, and are wide at the mouth, and divided into feveral fegments, wholly refembling the flowers of cucumbers. Of thefe alfo fome are male or fleril flowers, having no em- bryo fruit ; others are fruitful or female flowers, having an embryo which ripens into a large fruit of an oval figure, fometimes fmooth, fometimes rough, divided into three cells, and containing oblong feeds ; each of thefe cells feems alfo divided into two.

The fpecies of Alelon, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe : 1. The common Melon, with Dodbnaeus calls the cucumis of Galen. 2. The great fmooth green Melon, with fmallcr feeds. 3. The Spamfll Melon. 4. The fmall round Melon, called the fugar Melon, and round mull: Melon, 5. The turbinated Melon. 6. The reticular Melon of John Bauh'ine. 7. The little Egyptian Melon. Tourn. Inft. p. IQ4-

Melon {e&\ is cooling and diuretic, and has the fame virtues with the other cold feeds, as they are called. See the article Gourd.

The proper management and culture of Melons is this : The feeds fhould be procured from good Melons, produced in fome diftant garden ; for if fowed on the place where it was raifedan ripened, it is very apt to degenerate. This feed fhould be kept three years before it is fowed, ai d it fhould be fowed at two feafohs. The firft for the early crop, to be raifed under

frames, fhould he {own En January or the beginning of Fe- bruary ; the fecund, to be raited under bell or hand-glafTes, is to be fowed in March, and this is the lowing which produces (he general crop of Melons, which ripen in July and Auguft. About a week before the time of fowing the feed, fome du»g mould be prepared in a heap with the litter, or fome coal- afhes, and the fame methods ufed as in the early cucumbers, for the firft crop ; but for the feconci, which is of more gene- ral ufe, the fowing may be on the upper fides of the hot-beds that were for the early Melons or cucumbers, or on a frefh moderate hot-bed. When the young plants are come up, they muff, be removed to another hot-bed, and covered with hand- glafles, and watered and fhaded till they have taken root ; and after this they muft have as much air and iiin as the fea- fon will permit, and their fhlks fhould be earthed up as they grow, which will vaftly ftrengthen them. In the beginning of April the plants will begin to fhew their rough leaves, a parcel of dung is then to be prepared with the litter and coal-afhes. The common quantity is a load to five holes ; a trench muft then be dug, which fhould be ten in- ches deep, if the foil be dry, but only three if it be wet. The dung muft be evenly laid in this, and heaped up to three foot high. Then the places intended for the holes muft be marked out, at each of which muft be laid a bafket-full of light rich earth, thrufting a flick of two foot long into the middle. Then cover the dung all over with the earth which was dug up out of the trench, laying it fmooth, and about three inches thick ; then the giafles are to be placed clofc down over the place where each of the flicks is, and in two days the earth will be warm enough to receive the feedlinc plants. The flicks are now to be taken out, and the earth formed in the places into a hollow like a bafon, that it may retain the water which is given to the plants. The plants are then to be taken up, and two ftrong and thriving ones put into each of thefe holes, which muft be watered and fhaded till they have taken root. The plants having taken root, and thrufl out a fourth leaf, the top of each of them fhould be pulled off, in order to force out moots from the bottom, and as the weather becomes warmer, the giafles muft be raifed with Hones on the fouth fide, to give them air, and about twice a week they fhould have a little water. About the middle of May the ftalks of the plants will begin to prefs upon the glaffes on every fide, and the giafles are then to be raifed up on bricks, to give them room to run out ; and they fhould be pegged down with forked flicks, and turned into a proper direction for their running, Cc that they may be out of the way of tangling one with another : They fhould now, if the weather be fevere, be fheltered with mats in the night, and watered gently at times. When the ftalks of the plants are grown to the edges of the bed, the earth muft be raifed with old dung buried under it, till it be upon a level with the beds, for two foot wide on each fide. The branches are here to be trained in a proper courfe, and the giafles are to be left over the roots of the plants, and after this, what water is given them is to be fprinkled all over the plants.. When the fruit begins to appear, the waterings muft be very- gentle on the plants ; but it will be proper to foak the earth well with large quantities of water about the beds, which will fpread a moifture even to the roots of the plants j from this time the plants fhould be gently watered twice a week, and that always in the evening. When the Melons are grown of the fixe of a tennis ball, a piece of tile fhould be laid under each to keep them from the ground. As they afterwards ap- proach to ripenefs, they mould be turned feveral times, that they may ripen equally on every fide ; and if the weather be not very favourable, they mould be covered with glaiTes. If the Melon is defignci! to be eaten as foon as cut, it fhould be fuffered to remain on the plant till it changes pretty yellow, and the flalk begins to feparate from the fruit ; but if it be to be kept two or three days after cutting, it mufl always be cut proportionally ealier.

It is a practice with many to take oS" the- leaves about the fruit, that it may have more fun ; but it is wrong, and the fruit is always the worfe taflcd for it, and the fkin is hard and tough. Miller's Gardener's Diet.

Whenever a Melon appears well knit on a branch, it is pro-, per to cut off" all the reft of the branch beyond it, that the fruit may receive all the nourifhment that would have been conveyed into the whole branch ; only it mufl be obferved, that a fufficiency of leaves, of the neighbouring branches, be left or brought over it, to fhade it from the excefTrve heat of the fun in the drought and heat of the day. There is ufually required the fpace of forty days, from the time of a Melon's firft knitting on the branch, to its being perfectly ripe : But in cold feafons they are fometimes longer. In order to fave good feed for the next year, no other feeds are to be taken out than thofe which have lain in that part of the fruit which is next the fun, and thefe fhould be taken out at the time of the eating the Melon, and immediately wiped dry with a cloth, and laid up in a dry place. Melons fhould not be eaten till they have been gathered twenty-four hours ; they fhould, in the mean time, be laid in a cool but dry place. The proper time of gathering them is a thing of great confequence to the eating them in per- fection; they generally difcover the proper degree of ripenefs

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