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Tlic thirJ fort is very common in moft parts of 

 America, whtre it is cultivated as a culinary fruit •, 

 of this Ibrt there arc alfofeveral varieties, which differ 

 in their form and fize -, feme of thefe are flat, others 

 round ; fome arc fhaped like a bottle, and others are 

 oblong, their outer cover or rind being white when 

 ripe, and covered with large protuberances or warts. 

 The fruit are commonly g'athered when they are half 

 grov/n, and boiled by the inhabitants of America to 

 eat as a fauce with their meat-, but in England they 

 . are only cultivated by way of curiofity, few perfons 

 having a rclifli for tliem here, where they have a great 

 variety of better efculent plants at that feafon, when 

 thefe are tit for ufe. Thefe may be propagated in 

 tlie fame manner as the fecond fort. 

 The fourth fort is alio very common in North Ame- 

 rica, where it is cultivated for the fame purpofes as 

 the third. This very often grows with a ftrong, 

 bufhy, ercd ftalk, without putting out runners from 

 the iide, as the other forts, but frequently varies j 

 for after it has been cultivated a few years in the 

 fame garden, the plants will become trailing like 

 the others, and extend their branches to as great 

 diftance; and yet I have known when part of the 

 feeds, taken out from the fame fruit have been fown 

 in another garden, at a confiderable diftance, the 

 fruit have been the fame, and the plants have grown 

 ereft, when thofe which were fown in the fame garden, 

 have produced trailing plants with larger fruit of a 

 different fliapc. 



The fruit of the fifth fort hath a hard fhell when 



ripe like the firll:, which may be dried and preferved 



many years : thefe are of veiy different forms, and 



fize i fome are fliaped like a Pear, and are no bigger 



than a large Catherine Pear ; fome are as large as 



quart bottles, and almoft of the fame form 5 others 



are round and fhaped like an Orange, and are of the 



fame fize and colour, but thefe are very variable-, 



for I have cultivated moft of the forts near forty 



years, apd have not been able, with all pofrible care, 



to preferve the varieties longer than two or three 



. years in the fame garden, without procuring frefh 



. : feeds from fome diftant place. Whether thefe changes 



"' are brought about by the admixture of the farina 



with each other, or from what caufe I cannot fay, 



becaufe I have frequently planted them at as great 



diflance from each other as I pofTibly could in the 



fame garden, and yet the effeft has been the fame 



as when near. 



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The firft ibrt requires to be treated more tenderly 

 than the others, in order to procure ripe fruit ; fo 

 the feeds fliould be fown upon a moderate hot-bed in 

 April, and the plants afterward planted each into a 

 penny pot, and plunged into a very moderate hot- 

 bed to bring them forward ; but they mufl not be 

 tenderly treated, for if they have not a large fhare of 

 free air admitted to. them every day, they will draw 

 up weak. When the plants are grown too large to 

 be continued in the pots, there fhould be holes dug 

 where they are defigned to grow, and three or four 

 barrows full of hot dung put into each i thefe fhould 

 be covered with earth, into which the plants mufl 



be planted, and covered with hand-glafles till they 

 run out. 



There are fome people who plant thefe plants by the 

 fides of arbours, over which they train the vines; fo 



\ that in a fhort time they will cover the whole arbour, 

 and aftbrd a flrong Ihade, and upon fome of thefe 

 arbours I liave feen the longefl fruit. There are 



.,. others who plant rhcm near v/alls, pales, or hedges, 

 to which they fallen the Vines, and train them to a 

 great height: the Orange-fhaped Gourd is the Tort 

 which is moil commonly fo planted for the ornament 

 of its fruit, which has a pretty effedl:, efpecially when 

 feen at fome dillancc. All the forts require a larcre 

 fupply of water in dry v/eather. ' ^ 



Thefe plants requiring fo much room to fpread, and 

 their fruit being very little valued in England, hath 

 occafioned their not being cultivated amongfl us ; we 

 having fo many plants, roots, or fruits, which are 



greatly preferable to thofe for kitchen ufes : but In 

 fome parts of America, where provifions are not in 

 fo great plenty, or fo great variety, thefe fruits may ' 

 be very acceptable^ 

 C U I E T E See Cresc^entia; 

 CULMIFEROUS PLANTS [fo called of 

 Culmus^ LaL flraw or haulm,] are fuch as have a 

 fmooth jointed flalk, ufually hollow, and at eachjoint 

 wrapped about with fingle, narrow, fharp-pointed ' 

 leaves -, and their feeds are contained in chaffy hulks, 

 as Wheat, Barley, &c. 

 C U M I N O I D E Si See Lagoecia; 

 CUMINUM. Lin. Gen. Plant. 313. Mor, tJnib, 

 K^fxivovy Gr> Cumin. 



The Characters are^ 

 // halh an umbelliferous flower \ the general umbelis cbm- 

 pofed of fmaller^ which are divided into four parts \ their 

 involucrum is longer than the umbel. 'The great umbel is 

 uniform \ the flowers have five unequal petals^ whofebor~ 

 ders are inflexed^ and five fingle ftamina^ terminated by 

 fiender fummits. It hath a large germen fituated under 

 the flower^ fupporting two fmall JiylcSj crowned by fingle 

 fiigmas. The germen afterward becomes an oval ftriated 

 fruity compofed of two oval feeds ^ which are convex and 

 furrowed on one fide ^ and plain on the other. 

 This genus of plants is ranged in the fecond feftion , 

 of Linn^eus's fifth elafs, intitled Pentandria Digynia, 

 the flower having five flamina and two ftyles. 

 We have but one Species of this genus, viz. 

 CuMiNUM {Cyminum.) Lin. Mat. Med. 139. Cumin. 

 Cuminum femine longiore. C. B. P. 146. Cumin with 

 a longer feed. 



;_This plant is annual, perifhing foon after the feeds 

 '^ are ripe -, it feldom rifes more than nine or ten inches 

 high, in the warm countries where it is cultivated; 

 but I have never ften it grow more than three or 

 , four inches high in England, where I have fometimes 

 : . had the plants come fo far as to flower very well, but 

 never to produce feeds. The teaves of this plant are 

 divided into long narrow fegments like thofe , of 

 Fennel, but much fmaller i ,they are of a deep green, 

 and generally turn backward at their extremity -, the 

 flowers grow in fmall umbels at the top of the flalks; 

 thefe are compofed of five unequal petals, which are 

 of a pale blufh colour, and are fucceeded by long, 

 channelled, aromatic feeds. ^ * ' J 



The feeds of this plant is the only part ufed in me- 

 dicine \ thefe are ranged among the greater hot feeds; 

 they confifl of very warm diffolving parts, and arc 

 efteemed good to expel wind out of the ilomach and 

 bowels, fo they are frequently put into clyilers for 

 that purpofe, and are fometimes given in powder; 

 and outwardly applied, they are of great fervice to 

 cafe the pains of the breaft or fide. 

 This plant is propagated for fale in the ifland of 

 Malta, where it is called Cumino aigro, i. e. hot 

 Cumin. But Anife, which they alfo propagate in 

 no lefs quantity, they call Cumino dulce, i. e. f'l^e^t 

 Cumin. So that many of the old botanifls were 

 miflaken, when they made two fpecies of Cumin, 

 viz. acre and dulce. 



If the feeds of this plant are fown in fmall pots filled 

 with light kitchen-garden earth, and plunged into a 

 very moderate hot- bed to bring up the plants, and 

 thefe after having been gradually inured to the open 

 air, turned out of the pots, ana planted in a warm 

 border of good earth, preferving the balls of earth 

 to their roots, and afterward kept clean from weeds, 

 the plants will flower pretty well, and by thus 

 bringing of the plants forward in the fpring, they may 

 perfedl their feeds in very warm feafons. 

 C U N I L A. See Sideritis. 



CUNONIA. Buttn. Cun. tab. i. Antholyza. Lin. 

 Gen. Plant. 56. 



The Characters are. 

 The fiowers grow alternate in an imbricated fpike, eaci 

 having a fpatha or fheath^ compofed of two fpear-fhapd 

 concave leaves ; the flower hath one ringent petaU having 

 . a fhort fiender tube^ which is dilated at the chapSy and 

 compreffed on the fides \ the upper lip is arched^ and 

 ^ ^^- ^ ftretchd 



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