Chap, 23.] CUCUMBERS. 157 



that the cucumber ought to be propagated from seed that has 

 been steeped*^ a couple of days in milk and honey, this method 

 having the effect of rendering them all the sweeter to the taste. 

 The cucumber, while growing, may be trained to take any form 

 that may be wished : in Italy the cucumbers are green^* and 

 very small, while those grown in some of the provinces are 

 remarkably large, and of a wax colour or black.^ Those of 

 Africa, which are also remarkably prolific, are held in high 

 esteem ; the same, too, with the cucumbers of Moesia, which 

 are by far the largest of all. When the cucumber acquires a 

 very considerable volume, it is known to us as the ''pepo."" 

 Cucumbers when eaten remain on the stomach till the follow- 

 ing day, and are very difficult^^ of digestion ; still, for all that, 

 in general they are not considered very unwholesome. By 

 nature they have a wonderful hatred to oil, and no less affec- 

 tion for water, and this after they have been cut from the stem 

 even.*^ If water is within a moderate distance of them, they 

 will creep towards it, while from oil, on the other hand, they 

 will shrink away : if any obstacle, too, should happen to arrest 

 their progress, or if they are left to hang, they will grow 

 curved and crooked. Of these facts we may be satisfactorily 

 convinced in a single night even, for if a vessel filled with 

 water is placed at four fingers' distance from a cucumber, it 

 will be found to have descended to it by the following morn- 

 ing ; but if the same is done with oil, it will have assumed the 

 curved form of a hook by the next day. If hung in a tube 

 while in blossom, the cucumber will grow to a most surprising 



^ Theophrastus and Columella say the same of tlie cucumber, and 

 Palladius of the melon, but there is no ground, probably, for the belief. In 

 very recent times, however, Fee says, it was the usage to steep the seeds of the 

 melon in milk. This liquid, in common with any other, would have the 

 effect_ of softening the exterior integuments, and thereby facilitating the 

 germination, but no more. 



*5 Still known as the "green" or ''gherkin" cucumber, and much used, 

 when young, for pickling. 



*®_ Probably in the sense of a very dark green, for black cucumbers are 

 a thing unheard of. 



^^ He is evidently speaking of the pompion, or pumpkin, the Cucurbita 

 pepo of Linnaeus : quite distinct fi-om the cucumber. 



58 Cucumbers are not difficult of digestion to the extent that Pliny 

 would have us to believe. 



^^ As Fee says, it is a loss of time to combat such absurd prejudices as 

 these. 



