5. (a) Conjunct movement is movement along adjacent degrees of the scale (Ex. 5, fig. B).
The rigid devices of inversion, augmentation and diminution are illustrated in CONTRAPUNTAL FORMS and FUGUE.
The musical examples 5-10 show how Beethoven can develop a theme to results unrecognizable but for the intermediate steps. Ex. i i—i6 show a later kind of metamorphosis requiring no inter mediate steps, though the process in Wagner's Ring motif is gradual. (D. F. T.) MELON or MUSK MELON, Cucumis melo, a polymorphic species of the family Cucurbitaceae, including numerous varieties.
The melon is an annual trailing herb with palmately-lobed leaves, and bears tendrils by means of which it is readily trained over trellises. It is monoecious, having male and female flowers on the same plant ; the flowers have deeply five-lobed campanulate corol las and three stamens. Naudin observed that in some varieties (e.g., of cantaloups) fertile stamens sometimes occur in the female flowers. It is a native of south Asia "from the foot of the Himalayas to Cape Comorin" (see Charles Naudin Annales des sciences naturelles, vol. 4 1859), where it grows spontaneously, but is cultivated in the temperate and warm regions of the whole world. It is variable both in diversity of foliage and habit, but much more so in the fruit, which in some varieties is no larger than an olive, while in others it rivals the gourd (Cu curbita maxima). The fruit is globular, ovoid, spindle-shaped, or serpent-like, netted or smooth skinned, ribbed or furrowed, variously coloured externally, with white, green, or orange flesh when ripe, scented or scentless, sweet or insipid, bit ter or even nauseous. Like the gourd, the melon undergoes strange metamorphoses by crossing its varieties, though the latter preserves their characters when alone. The offspring of all crossings are fertile.
Naudin thinks it is probable that the culture of the melon in Asia is as ancient as that of all other alimentary vegetables. The Egyptians grew it, or at least inferior races of melon, which were either indigenous or introduced from Asia. The Romans and doubtless the Greeks were familiar with it, though some forms may have been described as cucumbers. The melon began to be extensively cultivated in France in 1629, according to Olivier de Serres. Gerard (Herball, 772) figured and described in 1597 several kinds of melons or pompions, but he has included gourds under the same name.
The region of origin of some of the chief modern races, such as "cantaloups," "Dudaim," "Cassaba" and probably the netted or nutmeg sorts, is believed to be Persia and the neighbouring west Asian regions. The first of these was brought to Rome from
Armenia in the 16th century, and supplies the chief sorts grown for the French markets; but many others are doubtless artificial productions of west Europe.
The water-melon (Citrullus vulgaris), native to tropical and southern Africa, is a member of a different genus. It has been cul tivated since earliest times in Egypt and the Orient, and was known before the Christian era in southern Europe. It is now grown in great quantities in the United States.
In northern countries the melon requires artificial heat to grow it to perfection, the rock and cantaloup varieties succeeding with a bottom heat of 70° and an atmospheric temperature of 75°, ris ing with sun heat to 8o°, and the Persian varieties requiring a bottom heat of 75°, gradually increasing to 8o°, and an atmos pheric temperature ranging from 75° to 8o° when the fruit is swelling, as much sun heat as the plants can bear being allowed at all times. The melon grows best in rich turfy loam, some what heavy, with which a little well-rotted dung, especially that of pigeons or fowls, should be used, in the proportion of one fif th mixed in the compost of loam. Melons are grown on hot beds of fermenting manure, when the soil should be about a foot in thickness, or in pits heated either by hot water or fermenting matter, or in houses heated by hot water, in which case the soil bed should be 15 or 18 in. thick.
The melon being one of those plants which produce distinct male and female flowers, it is necessary to its fertility that both should be produced, and that the pollen of the male flower should, either naturally by insect agency, or artificially by the cultivator's manipulation, be conveyed to the stigma of the female flower. After the fruit has set and has grown to the size of an egg, it should be preserved from contact with the soil by placing it on a piece of tile or slate; or if grown on a trellis by a little swing ing wooden shelf, just large enough to hold it. In either case the material used should be tilted a little to one side, so as to permit water to drain away. Before the process of ripening commences, the roots should have a sufficient supply of moisture, so that none may be required from that time until the fruit is cut for the table.
The varieties of melon are continually receiving additions, and as newer varieties spring into favour, so the older ones drop out of cultivation. A great deal depends on getting the varieties true to name, as they are very liable to get cross-fertilized by insect agency.