284 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



The engraving shows the length and shape of the fruit when 

 ready for pickling. 



Toulouse Gherkin. A vigorous plant, with rounded light 

 green leaves. When fully grown the fruit is thick, egg- 

 shaped, and yellow, measuring 7 or 8 in. in length and about 3^ in. 

 in diameter. The half-grown fruit, as used for pickling, is thick, 

 short, and spiny, with triangular section. This kind is much grown 

 in the south-west of France. It is fairly early and very productive. 



Early White-spine Pickling Cucumber. A very hardy and 

 vigorous and also very productive variety, each plant carrying 

 eight or ten fruit if they are allowed to ripen, and many more if 

 gathered young. When young they are green, short, and stout ; 

 as they grow they become paler and marked with four or five white 

 longitudinal lines ; when quite ripe they are almost white. Of 

 recent introduction from America, it is particularly recommended 

 for market-garden culture. 



Boston Pickling, or Green Prolific, Gherkin. An American 

 smooth-fruited variety. It is short, bright green, and comes 

 between the Russian and the Paris Gherkin, but is more like the 

 Russian. In America it is much used for pickling. 



The Chinese Gherkin is a pretty and vigorous variety, low- 

 growing, and not trailing much ; the fruit longer and more 

 cylindrical than the European varieties. 



SNAKE CUCUMBER 

 Cucumis Melo, L. var. ; Cucumis flexuosus, L. Cucurbi 



French, Concombre serpent. German, GrUne lange gekriimmte Schlangen-Gurke, 

 Schlangen-Melone. Italian, Anguria. 



Native of the East Indies. Annual. Stem creeping, slender, 

 round or bluntly angular, and covered with short hairs ; leaves 



rounded, almost kidney-shaped, or 

 with five obtuse angles ; flowers 

 monoecious, pale yellow, small, with 

 five rounded divisions, exactly resem- 

 bling the flowers of a Melon and 

 quite unlike those of a Cucumber ; 

 fruit very long and slender, almost 

 always bent and twisted, dark green, 

 Snake Cucumber (& natural size), marked with paler longitudinal furrows, 



and thickest at the end farthest from 



the stalk. They are about 3 ft. and sometimes more in length, 

 and change to a yellow colour when ripe, at which time they 

 exhale a strong odour of Melons. The seed is like that of the 

 Melon. Its germinating power lasts for seven or eight years. 

 This species, notwithstanding its common name, is a true Melon. 



