The Sikkim Cucumber was first fruited in England by 
Major Trevor Clarke, who believed that he had fertilised it 
with the pollen of the Telegraph Cucumber. By some 
blunder, perhaps owing to the Melon-like appearance of 
Major Trevor Clarke’s fruit, which was sent to Kew, and from 
which plants were raised, it is described in the ‘ Gardener’s 
Chronicle” (1875, vol. iv., p. 206-7.) as a hybrid between the 
Melon and the Cucumber—a cross which has never been 
effected. On its fruiting at Kew shortly afterwards, I recog- 
nised it as my Sikkim plant, and the statement as to its hybrid 
origin was corrected in a succeeding number of the Chronicle 
(1875, vol. iv., p. 303). It flowered in the Tropical Economic 
House in July, and the fruit ripened in August, when it 
attracted great attention from its size, singular form, and 
colour. The English-grown specimens have three placentas, 
but five was as common a number in Sikkim, and I have 
observed a tendency in old fruits to split longitudinally into 
three or five fleshy pieces. 
In connection with this subject I may mention here that 
the origin of the common Cucumber, which is supposed to be 
unknown, is in all probability the C. Hardwickii, Royle, of 
the Himalaya Mountains, which inhabits the sub-tropical 
region of the range from Kumaon to Sikkim. This opinion, 
founded on specimens gathered by myself in the latter country, 
is also adopted by M. Naudin, upon the same materials 
(Ann. Se. Nat., le., p. 30). The flowers and leaves of the 
two plants are almost identical, but the fruit of @. Hardwickij 
is small, smooth, and very bitter ; it is, however, striped with 
white and green, a very usual character with the Sikkim 
cultivated Cucumbers, 
Some cultivated Ceylon forms of Cucumber, of which Dr. 
Thwaites has supplied me with drawings, approach those of 
the Concombre de Sikkim, but are much smaller, are striped 
with green-and yellow-brown, and the mottling is not so 
tessellated.—J. D. I. 
Fig. 1, Calyx of @ laid open, and stigmas; 2, calyx of: ? Wid gue aad 
stamens both magnified, eee : Yy ¢$ laid open, 
