_Average cost_, 8d. for a pint of iced currants. _Seasonable_ in summer.

MELONS.

1559.--This fruit is rarely preserved or cooked in any way, and should
be sent to table on a dish garnished with leaves or flowers, as fancy
dictates. A border of any other kind of small fruit, arranged round the
melon, has a pretty effect, the colour the former contrasting nicely
with the melon. Plenty of pounded sugar should be served with it; and
the fruit should be cut lengthwise, in moderate-sized slices. In
America, it is frequently eaten with pepper and salt.

_Average cost_,--English, in full season, 3s. 6d. to 5s. each; when
scarce, 10s. to 15s.; _seasonable_, June to August. French, 2s. to 3s.
6d. each; _seasonable_, June and July. Dutch, 9d. to 2s. each;
_seasonable_, July and August.

MELON.--The melon is a most delicious fruit, succulent, cool,
and high-flavoured. With us, it is used only at the dessert, and
is generally eaten with sugar, ginger, or pepper; but, in
France, it is likewise served up at dinner as a sauce for boiled
meats. It grows wild in Tartary, and has been lately found in
abundance on the sandy plains of Jeypoor. It was brought
originally from Asia by the Romans, and is said to have been
common in England in the time of Edward III., though it is
supposed that it was lost again, as well as the cucumber, during
the wars of York and Lancaster. The best kind, called the
_Cantaloupe_, from the name of a place near Rome where it was
first cultivated in Europe, is a native of Armenia, where it
grows so plentifully that a horse-load may be bought for a
crown.

PRESERVED MULBERRIES.

1560. INGREDIENTS.--To 2 lbs. of fruit and 1 pint of juice allow 2-1/2
lbs. of loaf sugar.

_Mode_.--Put some of the fruit into a preserving-pan, and simmer it
gently until the juice is well drawn. Strain it through a bag, measure
it, and to every pint allow the above proportion of sugar and fruit. Put
the sugar into the preserving-pan, moisten it with the juice, boil it
up, skim well, and then add the mulberries, which should be ripe, but
not soft enough to break to a pulp. Let them stand in the syrup till
warm through, then set them on the fire to boil gently; when half done,
turn them carefully into an earthen pan, and let them remain till the
next day; then boil them as before, and when the syrup is thick, and
becomes firm when cold, put the preserve into pots. In m