306 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



The CUCUMBER (Cucumis sativus) speaks for itself. 

 In north-western India it has been cultivated for over 

 three thousand years. Possibly it is the outcome of 

 some ruder species, after the manner of the apple from 

 the crab. This is the only fruit which in England we eat 

 while still green without cooking. 



The VEGETABLE-MARROW (Cucurbita succada) is of 

 uncertain origin. Most probably it is a variety of the 

 common pompion, Cucurbita Pepo. The bees are so fond 

 of diving into the golden caverns of the cucurbit flowers, 

 that there can be little doubt that they promote the origi- 

 nation of hybrids or " crosses," and to their influence it 

 is quite likely that the marrow may be in part attributed. 

 We have had it only since the beginning of the present 

 century, when it is believed to have been introduced 

 from south-western Asia. This excellent fruit, as it 

 deserves, is now more generally cultivated than any other 

 of its tribe. Hardy, prolific, adapted not only for the 

 dinner-table, but for conversion into a sweetmeat, and 

 demanding of the gardener only the very minimum of 

 trouble and attention, of all vegetable productions in 

 which the ideas of fruit and vegetable unite, it is unques- 

 tionably the most valuable, a production that none can 

 afford to despise, and, best of all, the poor man's friend. 

 One of these days perhaps we shall see our miles of 

 unoccupied railway-slope utilized in some degree for the 

 culture of a plant that can never be an interloper, and is 

 always welcome to some one. When ripe, the vegetable- 

 marrow is superior to all the other gourds, even the 



