A PERFECT cantaloupe ! have you the recollection of one ? Then you will treasure it in your memory, for in its full perfection it is a rarity, and in the estimation of some, it has no equal in our summer fruits. To constitute perfection, the fruit should be removed from the vine shortly before it is ripe; it should be washed with soap and cold water, then dried in a soft towel, and then set to ripen in a dry place. A cantaloupe that before washing smells like a potato, will in a few hours begin to give out an inviting perfume, and when this odor has reached its proper measure and character is the time to cut the melon, regardless of the clock.

Almost every lover of the cantaloupe has in his mind an ideal melon, based either upon a recollection of one long since eaten, perhaps in his boyhood, or upon what he believes should be the form, size, character, color and flavor of a perfect fruit. The seedsman has his ideal, and hunts the world over for seeds to test, in the hope of some day realizing it. Hundreds of varieties from all parts of the melon-growing world have been grown during the last ten years, and still the hope is unsatisfied. The trucker also has an ideal, which is largely a commercial one; he wants a hardy, productive plant; a well-netted, tough-rinded fruit, that will ripen off the vine ; a melon that is neither small or large, and that has a good smell and taste. He also wants an early ripener, and one that does not run through its cropping too soon. The seedsman tries to meet these wishes; but at the same time to perfect the fruit in its quality, to suit his own taste and that of the epicure. My own ideal melon is of the size and form of a large ostrich egg, with a thin, finely netted rind, thick grass-green flesh, a small seed cavity, and a sweet aromatic flavor.

Some fifty years or more ago, there was introduced into this market a small green-fleshed cantaloupe known as the "Center melon," which for a time, far excelled in richness of flavor all of its competitors. It was flat in form, grooved, and finely netted; but was too small to suit the ideas of the trucker. This Center melon was the progenitor of the Jenny Lind variety, named about 1846; but where it came from no one now appears to know. I am inclined, however, to believe that it originated in the east, and possibly in the table land of Armenia, where netted green-fleshed melons are produced in abundance, some of which are flat, and where the same perfect flavor is to be met with. These Armenian melons belong to a hardy race, are quite productive in our climate, and can stand it as well as any of our own kinds ; they are as yet entirely unknown to to our seedsmen. I grew several last year. In form are they flat, globular and oval, and all are fine-grained, thin-rinded, green-fleshed, and closely netted. This oval cantaloupe has come nearer to my ideal than any one I have yet tested, and I hope to give it a better trial this coming summer. As oriental seeds always come mixed in the packages, it will take time to separate the varieties by selection.

As I have discovered Erzeroum, in Armenia, to be a great melon center for both cantaloupes and watermelons that are calculated to stand our hot summers, it is to be hoped that our enterprising seedsmen will take steps to secure a full line of seeds.

The cantaloupe has largely multiplied in its varieties in our country of latter years, and we have now those that are white-fleshed, yellow-fleshed, red-fleshed and salmon-fleshed. We have also netted, toad-marked and smooth fruits, with green, yellow and whitish rinds. Attempts have been made to grow the winter varieties of Naples and Malta, which may be ripened from Christmas to Easter, but as yet with no encouragement. The large green melon of Naples is the best and grows in boggy land, but has thus far failed when planted in the same kind of soil in Florida, under my directions.

In size the cantaloupe varies as much as in quality, and the extremes of weight are a few ounces and fifty-two pounds, the largest being coarse-grained and somewhat fibrous in texture. Up to twenty or twenty-five pounds, fine-grained fruits are produced, especially of the green-fleshed varieties. The largest imported kind was introduced from Portugal, and of native varieties the largest was brought recently from Colorado ; both at their maximum weight over fifty pounds, being as large as very large watermelons. Such brobdignagian fruits are valuable as surprises for a dinner company, but the smaller kinds are more pleasing to the palate.

For a combination of large size and fine quality, perhaps no imported variety ever equalled the Persian melon, grown for many years in the vicinity of Washington city, under the name of the "Hunter cantaloupe," a long, golden, closely netted fruit, with green flesh, reaching twenty inches in length and a weight of twenty-five pounds. This must not be confounded with the "Casaba" or Smyrna melon, often erroneously called "Persian," the seeds of which were sent to the United States by Dr. Goodell, now of this city, on several occasions when residing in Constantinople. Persia is a land of melons, from which we have had, as far as known to me, but four varieties of cantaloupe, two of which are still produced; and no watermelon. Who now grows the "Ispahan" cantaloupe of the late Bayard Taylor. Travelers praise the melons of Persia, write about them, and throw the seeds away ! Missionaries and American physicians have occupied the garden spots of the land of Ahasuerus for half a century ; have sent thousands of letters home, and have often visited their own land in person ; but where are the apricots, quinces, melons and pomegranates of their introduction? Where are the fruits of Persia introduced by our diplo-mates through our Agricultural bureau ? Personal efforts made during the last four years have thus far failed to bring a single seed.

In a horticultural sense, the land appears to be walled in.