CUCURBITACEjE. IV. CUCUMIS. 



27 



November, at which time the shoots of the vines were withdrawn 

 from the house, and a dung-bed formed in the floor of the 

 vinery in the usual way. After placing the frame and mould on 

 the bed, it may be left without the lights until the rank steam 

 has passed off. After this, the plants being placed in the hills, 

 and the sashes put on, the following are the leading features of 

 management during the winter. Make fires in the evening, so 

 as to warm the air of the house to from 56 to 60, and in very- 

 severe frosts it may be raised to 70. In the mornings of the 

 coldest weather, and shortest days, make a strong fire, so as to 

 raise the heat to nearly 70 when the house is shut up. About 

 8 o'clock, and from that time to half past 9, give plenty of fresh 

 air, by opening the front sashes and top lights, after which, and 

 ' during the remainder of the day, give plenty of air to the 

 cucumbers, by tilting the sashes in the usual way. In mild 

 weather, and during sunshine, the lights may be taken en- 

 tirely off the cucumbers for some hours each day ; and imme- 

 diately after forming new linings, the top lights may be left 

 open a little all night to permit the escape of rank steam. The 

 advantage of this mode of growing cucumbers during winter is, 

 the comparative certainty of an early and good crop at one-third 

 of the trouble and expence of the common method out of doors. 

 By this practice fruit may be cut in January. The vines may 

 be introduced in the beginning of March, and will break beauti- 

 fully and regularly in consequence of the genial steam of the 

 dung. In April the shade of the vine leaves will have rendered 

 the house too dark for the culture of the cucumber, and as by 

 this time cucumbers are plentiful in the common hot-beds out of 

 doors, the bed in the vinery may be cleared away, and the vines 

 treated in the usual way till the following November. 



Common or Cultivated Cucumber. Fl. July, Sept. Clt. 1573. 

 PI. trailing. 



4 C. FLEXUOSUS (Lin. spec. 1437.) stems trailing, scabrous, 

 flexuous, cirrhiferous ; leaves cordate-ovate, somewhat lobed, 

 denticulated, stalked ; flowers in fascicles in the axils of the 

 leaves ; calyx very pilose ; fruit long, cylindrically-clavate, fur- 

 rowed, flexuous, replicate, white or yellow. 0- F. Native of 

 the East Indies. Lob. stirp. p. 363. f. 2. Dodon. pempt. p. 66. 

 f. 2. Ger. herb. p. 763. f. 3. Fruit the size of a large pear, 

 eatable, and delicious. It is cultivated about Nagasaki and 

 elsewhere in Japan ; is ripe in June, and is called by the Dutch 

 Banket Melon. 



far. ft, reflexus (Ser. mss.) leaves angularly-lobed. C. re- 

 flexus, Zieh. 



Flexuous- fruited or. Banket Melon. Fl. May, Sept. Clt. 

 1597. PI. tr. 



5 C. JAMAICE'NSIS (Bert, ex Spreng. syst. 3. p. 46.) leaves 

 cordate, 3-lobed, quintuple-nerved, glabrous, quite entire, beset 

 with scabrous dots beneath ; lobes acuminated ; fruit nearly glo- 

 bose. Q. F. Native of Jamaica. 



Jamaica Melon. Fl. June, Sep. Clt. 1824. Pl.tr. 



6 C. MACROCA'RPOS (Wenderoth ex Mart, reise. bras, ex Lin- 

 naea. 5. p. 39.) leaves cordate, rather angular, acutish, sharply- 

 denticulated, scabrous from hairs ; fruit oblong, obsoletely striat- 

 ed and spotted, remotely tuberculated. Q. F. Native of Brazil. 



Long-fruited Cucumber. PI. tr. 



7 C. CHA'TE (Lin. spec. 1437.) plant very villous ; stems 

 trailing, bluntly pentagonal, flexuous ; leaves petiolate, roundish, 

 bluntly angled, denticulated ; flowers small, on short peduncles; 

 fruit pilose, elliptic, tapering to both ends. . F. Native of 

 Egypt and Arabia. Alp. exot. segyp. p- 54. t. 40. Bauh. hist. 

 2. p. 248. f. 3. The fruit is rather watery ; the flesh almost of 

 the same substance with the melon ; the taste somewhat sweet, 

 and cool as the water-melon. The grandees and Europeans in 

 Egypt eat it as the most pleasant fruit they have, and that from 

 which they have least to apprehend. With us it is very indif- 



ferent. It is most common in the fertile soil around Cairo, after 

 the inundation of the Nile. Chate is the Egyptian name of the 

 plant. 



Chate or Hairy Cucumber or Melon. Fl. June, Aug. Clt. 

 1759. Pl.tr. 



8 C. DUDA'IM (Lin. spec. 1437.) plant hispid ; lower leaves 

 roundish, upper ones somewhat 5-lobed, cordate at the base, 

 denticulated ; tendrils simple ; petals ovate-roundish ; male 

 flowers having the calyx rounded at the base, the throat dilated, 

 and with the connectives longer than the anthers ; hermaphro- 

 dite flowers having the tube of the calyx ovate and pilose ; stig- 

 mas 4-6 ; fruit globose, smoothish, variegated, rarely warted : 

 with white sweet-scented, but insipid flesh. 0. F. Native of 

 Persia. And. bot. rep. t. 548. C. odoratissimus, Mcench, 

 meth. 654. Dill. hort. elth. 223. t. 177. f. 218. Walth. hort. 

 p. 133. t. 21. The fruit is variegated with green and orange, 

 and oblong unequal green spots ; when full ripe becoming yel- 

 low, and at length whitish. It has a very fragrant vinous musky 

 smell, and a whitish, flaccid, insipid pulp. Dudaim is the Hebrew 

 name of the fruit, rendered mandrake in Scripture, which is per- 

 haps C. prophetarum. 



Dudaim or Apple-shaped Melon. Fl.Jul.Aug. Clt.l 705. Pl.tr. 



9 C. CO'NOMON (Thunb. jap. p. 324.) plant rather pilose ; 

 stem trailing, striated ; leaves cordate, somewhat lobed, stalked, 

 rather pilose ; flowers small; fruit oblong, glabrous, 6-10-fur- 

 rowed; flesh firm. 0. F. Native of Japan. Fruit larger 

 than a man's head. Flowers aggregate, on rather hispid stalks. 

 This plant is cultivated every where in Japan for the sake of its 

 fruit, which, when preserved, is sold under the name of Conne- 

 mon, and is a common food among the Japanese. It is also fre- 

 quently eaten by the Dutch at Batavia, and is sometimes brought 

 to Holland. 



Conomon Melon. PI. tr. 



10 C. SE'PIUM (Meyer, prim, esseq. p. 278.) leaves cordate- 

 ovate, somewhat 5-lobed ; fruit oval, muricated, acuminated at 

 both ends. 0. F. Native of Guiana, in the island of Wac- 

 hanama. C. anguria, Reeusch, but not of Lin. ex Steud. nom. 

 It differs from our C. anguria in the leaves being subpalmate, 

 with angular recesses, and in the fruit being globosely-elliptic. 



Hedge Melon. PI. tr. 



11C. LINEA'TUS (Bosc. journ. hist. nat. 2. p. 251. t. 37.) stem 

 climbing, pentagonal ; tendrils trifid, longer than the leaves ; 

 leaves cordate, palmate, acutish, serrulated ; petioles short ; 

 flowers usually twin, almost sessile ; i'emale ones having an 

 oblong-ovate calyx, and lanceolate segments ; petals ovate, 

 refuse; fruit ovate-oblong, lined with green, 10-ribbed. O. F. 

 Native of Cayenne. 



Lined- fruited Melon. Fl. June. Aug. Clt. 1825. Pl.tr. 



12 C. PROPHETA'KUM (Lin. spec. 1436. amoan. acad. 4. p. 

 295.) stem trailing, striated ; leaves cordate, 5-lobed, denticu- 

 lated ; lobes obtuse; flowers axillary, 2-5-together, stalked; 

 male ones with a campanulate calyx, and obovate petals ; calyx 

 of the female flowers globose at the base, 12-striped, and his- 

 pid : limb campanulate, crowned by teeth ; fruit globose, echi- 

 nated, variegated, size of a cherry. 0. F. Native of Arabia. 

 Jacq. hort. vind. 1. 1. 9. Blackw. herb. 589. C. grossularioides, 

 Hortul. The plant has a nauseous odour. The fruit equals the 

 Colocynth in bitterness. 



Prophet's or Globe Cucumber. Fl.Ju.Sept. Clt.1777.Pl.tr. 



13 C. AFRICA' NUS (Lin. fil. suppl. p. 423.) stems trailing, an- 

 gular ; leaves cordate, 5-lobed ; lobes acutish ; peduncles fili- 

 form ; fruit ovate-oblong, much echinated. $ . F. Native of 

 the Cape of Good Hope. Lindl. bot. reg. t. 980. Herm. par. 

 p. 134. t. 36. Flowers small. Very like C. prophetarum. 



African Cucumber. Fl. June, Aug. PI. tr. 



14 C. ANGU'RIA (Lin. spec. 1436. but not of Raeusch. ex Steud. 



