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OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



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401 



cellent drink to be given in fevers, and other disorders, where 

 a cooling regimen is necessary. It must, however, be con- 

 fessed, that these are very old prescriptions, which are now 

 little esteemed. The Melon is generally esteemed one of the 

 most delicious summer fruits, and when taken in moderate 

 quantities, is of easy digestion ; but to excess, is apt to pro- 

 duce violent and sometimes dangerous disorders in the sto- 

 mach and bowels. It is peculiarly refreshing in hot climates, 

 abounds more in saccharine matter, and is said rarely to 

 disagree. 



8. Cucumis Chate ; Hairy Cucumber. Hirsute : angles 

 ot the leaves entire, rounded; fruits fusiform, drawn to a 

 point at each end, rough with hairs: Stems decumbent, cir- 

 rhose, obscurely five-cornered. The whole plant covered 

 close and thick with soft, white, pellucid hairs, like the 

 germen in the common Melon, which differs in this, in being 

 rough, with stiffish, conical, distant hairs. The fruit swells 

 in the middle, is rough, with erect white hairs, and has a 

 beak at each end. It is found in the fertile earth round 

 Cairo, after the inundation of the Nile, but no where else, in 

 E'rypt ; (Linneus adds,) and in Arabia. It is a native of the 

 Levant. The fruit is rather watery ; the flesh almost of the 

 same substance as the Melon ; the taste somewhat sweet and 

 cool, but not equally so with the Water-Melon. The grandees 

 and Europeans in Egypt, eat it as the most pleasant fruit, 

 and that from which they have least to apprehend ; but in 

 England it is very indifferent, and is rarely cultivated. 



9. Cucumis Sativus; Common Cucumber. Leaves straight 

 between the angles ; fruit oblong, scabrous. The Cucumber 

 is so well known, it is only necessary to remark, that the 

 leaves differ very much in their form from those of the Melon, 

 running out into sharp angles, especially at the end, with the 

 line between the angles straight, having the nerves prominent 

 on the upper surface, and very rough with bristles ; they are 

 also of a firmer texture. In the flowers, the segments of the 

 calix are much longer; the corolla of a deeper yellow, each 

 petal or part much wrinkled, commonly rolled in at the edges; 

 the ribs at the back bristly as in the Melon, and the principal 

 rib ending in a long green point. The principal varieties are, 



1. Common rough green prickly; six or seven inches long, 

 with a dark green skin, closely set with small prickles: it is 

 hardy, and a plentiful bearer, but does not fruit early : 



2. short green prickly ; three or four inches long, skin rather 

 smooth, but having small black prickles : one of the hardiest 

 and early sorts : 3. long green prickly ; from six to eight 

 or nine inches long, thinly set with prickles : this is a good 

 bearer, and the best for main crops : there is also a variety 

 of it with white fruit: 4. early green cluster, shortish, 

 early, and remarkable for the flowers appearing in clusters : 

 5. long smooth green Turkey; the stalks and leaves much 

 larger than those of the former sorts ; the fruit generally 

 twice as long, from ten to fiteen inches, and has a smooth 

 rind without prickles : 6. long smooth white Turkey; differs 

 little from the foregoing, except in colour ; it is however less 

 watery, and is therefore generally better esteemed : 7- large 

 smooth green Roman ; the plants are very strong; and the 

 fruit large, long, and quite smooth : 8. long white prickly 

 Dutch ; fruit eight or ten inches long, white, with small black 

 prickles. It is a bad bearer in England, and not so hardy as 

 the common sorts ; but the fruit is less watery, and has fewer 

 seeds. Ray observes, in his Travels, that the Italians call 

 our Cucumbers citrulli; and Water Melons, and Pompions, 

 rucumeri: in Spanish it is called cohnmbro; in French, con- 

 combrfi in Swedish, gurka i in Danish, angurke, agurke ; in 

 Dutch, komkommcr ; in German, gurke, kukummer. Culture 

 of the Cucumber. Those persons who wish to be early with 



VOL. i. 34. 



their Cucumbers, generally put them in before Christmas ; but 

 the generality of gardeners commonly put their seeds into the 

 hot-bed about Christmas. A stove will raise these plants of 

 a better quality, and with less danger of failure, than a com- 

 mon hot-bed. The seeds should be sown in small pots filled 

 with light dry earth, and plunged into the tan-bed, in the 

 warmest part of the stove. The pots with earth should be 

 plunged three or four days before the seeds are sown, that 

 the earth may be properly warmed to receive them : the 

 seed should be at least three or four years old, or more 

 the better, provided it will grow. The plants will appear in 

 a week or nine days; then as many small pots filled with 

 dry light earth, as there are plants intended for planting, 

 should be prepared by plunging them into the bark-bed, 

 that the earth maybe warmed to receive the plants; two of 

 which should be pricked into these pots, as soon as the two 

 first leaves are raised above the ground ; but when they have 

 taken root, and are safe, the worst should be drawn out, 

 taking care not to disturb the roots of those which are left. 

 The water given to these plants should be lukewarm, and 

 they must be guarded from the moisture which frequently 

 drops from the glasses of the stove. They should not be 

 kept long in the stove, but a hot-bed must be prepared to 

 receive them, the size of which must be in proportion to 

 the quantity of plants. A cart load of dung will make a bed 

 large enough for a middling family. The dung should be 

 new, not too full of straw, with some sea-coal ashes well 

 mixed together, and thrown in a heap, until it has fermented 

 a few days, when it should be turned over and mixed, laying 

 it up again in a heap. The bed should be well sheltered 

 by reed hedges, and the ground should be dry. The trench 

 ought at least to be a foot deep, into which the dung should 

 be wheeled, and carefully stirred up and mixed, so that no 

 part of it should be left unseparated ; for where there is not 

 this care taken, the bed will settle unequally ; there should 

 also be great care taken to beat the dung down close alike in 

 every part of the bed. The frame and glasses should then be 

 put upon it to keep out the rain, but no earth ought to be 

 laid upon the surface until two or three days after, that the 

 steam of the dung may have time to evaporate. If there 

 should be any danger of the bed burning, it will be proper to 

 lay some short old dung, two inches thick, over the top of 

 the other, which will prevent it by keeping down the heat. 

 After this, there should be a sufficient number of three- 

 farthing pots placed upon the bed, filled with light dry earth, 

 and all the interstices between them filled up with any com- 

 mon earth. In two or three days the earth in these pots 

 will be of a proper temperature to receive the plants, which 

 should then be turned out of the first small pot, and planted 

 into these, with the ball of earth adhering to their roots, 

 taking care not to give them too much wet ; and as they will 

 have such large balls of earth, as not to feel their removal, 

 they will not require shading from the sun ; but the glasses 

 should be raised up a little on the contrary side to the wind, 

 to let the steam of the bed pass off; and the glasses should 

 be frequently turned in the day-time, that the wet occasioned 

 by the steam of the dung may be dried, otherwise the 

 moisture will fall on the plants, which will be very injurious 

 to them. If the bed should heat too violently, so as to 

 endanger scalding the roots of the plants, the pots may be 

 raised so as to allow of a little hollow at their bottoms, which 

 will effectually prevent it ; and when the heat declines, the 

 pots may be settled down again. The glasses of the hot-bed 

 should be well covered with mats every night, to keep the 

 bed in a proper temperature of heat ; and great care must be 

 taken to admit fresh air every day to the plants, which must 

 5 K 



