154 



HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



suggested as the origin of that rare and magnificent 

 phenomenon which we have here denominated 

 " Net " * lightning — one of the most glorious 

 evidences of the power and majesty of Him who 

 creates and upholds the universe ; every atom in the 

 dust of the balance being, as Charles Kingsley 

 beautifully puts it, " distinctly and deliberately 

 divine." Each particle is, indeed, if we but knew one 

 half of the laws by which it is actuated, as much a 

 witness to the science and the "Art of God,"'f as 

 the Kosmos itself; as distinctly the handiwork of 

 the Great Artificer as is the majestic expanse of the 

 starlit sky. 



THE HISTORY OF THE CUCUMBER 

 (CUCUMIS SATIVUS). 



By H. G. Glasspoole. 



THE cucumber is known to have been cultivated 

 for more than three thousand years. In ancient 

 Egypt it was extensively grown, and is so at the 

 present day ; the succulent nature of the plant en- 

 abling it to resist the drought of the sandy plains, 

 while it flourishes well in the richer soils watered by 

 the Nile. The want of this vegetable was one of the 

 grievances complained of to Moses by the Israelites 

 in the wilderness ; we also find it mentioned in other 

 parts of Scripture. The cucumber is mentioned in 

 a particular manner by some of the early Greek 

 writers on plants. Theophrastus, writing on the 

 cucumber, enumerates three varieties— the Boeotian, 

 Scytalic, and Laconican ; the last, he states, thrives 

 better with watering than the others. Diodes, of 

 Carystus, an ancient town of Greece, tells us that 

 the cucumber eaten with sium at the first course of a 

 meal makes the eater uncomfortable, for it gets into 

 the head as the radish does, but that if eaten at the 

 end of supper it causes no uncomfortable feeling and 

 is more digestible. We are told that the farmers of 

 those days considered that if their seed was steeped 

 in the juice from the root of the cucumber it would 

 be protected from the ravages of insects. 



Cucumbers grown in the neighbourhood of Antioch 

 were considered by the ancient Greeks the finest. 

 Columella, one of the oldest Roman writers on 

 agriculture, mentions that the inhabitants of Mendes 

 in Egypt were accustomed to take the largest bramble- 

 bush they could find, transplant it to a warm, sunny 

 spot, cut it down at about the time of the vernal 

 equinox to within a couple of fingers of the ground, 

 then insert a seed of the cucumber into the pith of the 

 bramble, the roots of which were well covered over 

 with fine earth and manure to withstand the cold. 

 By this plan they were enabled to have cucumbers all 

 the year round. This same author states that cucum- 

 bers ought to be propagated from seed that has been 



* A reticulated pattern, instantaneously impressed upon a 

 large expanse of sky. q 



f Such is the term applied to Nature by Sir Thomas Browne. 



steeped in milk and honey for a couple of days, this 

 method having the effect of rendering them sweeter 

 and pleasanter to the taste. He also gives directions 

 to his own countrymen for forcing this plant by 

 artificial means. Those who wish to have them 

 early, he says, should plant the seed in well-dunged 

 earth, put into osier baskets, that they may be carried 

 out of the house and planted in warm situations when 

 the weather permits. The baskets may be put upon 

 wheels so that they may be brought in and out with less 

 labour, and as soon as the season advances the baskets 

 may be sunk in the earth. Pliny states that in Italy 

 the cucumbers are small, but in some countries are re- 

 markably large and of a wax colour or black. Those 

 from Africa are most prolific. He mentions that by 

 nature the cucumber has a wonderful hatred of oil, 

 but has a great affection for water. Of this fact, he 

 says, we may be satisfactorily convinced in a single 

 night, for if a vessel filled with water is placed four 

 fingers distant from a cucumber it will have descended 

 into it by the following morning — but if the same is 

 done with oil it will assume the curved form of a 

 hook by the next day. This same author tells us 

 that the Emperor Tiberius was so fond of cucumbers, 

 and took such pleasure and delight in them, that they 

 were served up at his table every day all the year 

 round. The beds and gardens wherein they grew 

 were made upon frames so as to be removed every 

 way with wheels, and in winter during the cold 

 frosty days they would be drawn into certain high- 

 covered buildings exposed to the sun, which was 

 admitted through frames or lights covered with lapis 

 specularis, probably talc or some transparent mineral, 

 which the Romans knew well how to split into thin 

 laminae, so that light might be transmitted through 

 it. This appears to be the earliest account of forcing 

 plants which we read of in ancient times (Phillips, 

 " Pomarium Britannicum "). 



The Romans, from the remains of their villas found 

 in this country, appear to have been acquainted with 

 the art of heating their rooms with flues and hot 

 water, and from this we are led to believe that cu- 

 cumbers and other vegetables were extensively forced 

 during the days of Roman splendour. Pliny men- 

 tions that a new variety of this plant had accidentally 

 been produced in his time in Campania, the fruit of 

 which was of the form of a quince ; it did not grow 

 hanging, but assumed its round shape as it lay on 

 the ground ; the seeds from this produced similar 

 plants. The name given to this variety was Melopepo 

 (Fee says that this is the melon, the Cucumis melo of 

 Linnaeus). Pliny appears to have considered this 

 vegetable unwholesome in an uncooked state, as he 

 tells us it will live in the stomach until the next day, 

 and cannot be reduced to food, but when boiled and 

 served up with oil, vinegar, and honey they make 

 a delicate salad ; he also recommends a pinch of the 

 seed beaten up with cummin and taken with wine 

 as a good remedy for a cough. 



