Apr.] The Kitchen Garden, 173 



The flowers of cucumbers and melons arc male and fe- 

 male, feparate on the fame plant, and the femaki) produce 

 the fruit ; the males are ofien erroneou/ly called falfe Ijlof- 

 foms ; and many perfons in confequcnee of that notion, 

 pull them off; but they are fo far irom being falfe bloom, 

 that they are by nature deiigned to impregnate the female 

 flowers, to render them fruitful ; for the antherre in the 

 centre of the male bloffom.- being furnilhed with a fine 

 powder, which being difp^fed on the iHgma in the cen- 

 tre of the female, the fecundation is eil'edled, and the 

 fruit in a day or two after will begin to fwcll, and in a 

 fortnight will be arrived to a proper fv/.e for cutting ; fo 

 that without the aflillance of the male bloiTom, the fe- 

 males having the embryo fruit at their bafe, withers and 

 decays ; and the infant fruit turns yellow and drops off. 



Therefore it is of importance to prcferve a fufficiency 

 of the male flowers, for the purpofe of impregnating the 

 females ; and in the early culture of cucumVjer;, Scz. it is 

 eligible to carry fome of the males to the female flowers, 

 obferving, for this purpofe, to detach fome new expanded 

 male bloilbms with the fialk to each, and holding the 

 ilalk between the finger and thumb, and pulling off the pe- 

 tal or flower-leaf furrounding the male organ ; then with 

 the remaining anthera, or central part, touch the fligma of 

 the female, fo as fome of the frvrinaor male pov,der of the 

 anthera adheres to the fl:igma, a little of which being fuf- 

 ficient to efleft the impregnation. 



This operation is effentially neceflliry to be performed 

 by hand, to early plants that are fhut up in frames, before 

 the lights or glafles can be admitted fufhciently open to give 

 free accefs to a large current of air, or flying infeds, fuch as 

 bees, &c. all of which afiiil in conveying tlie fanna of the 

 male bloom to the females ; as is evident in plants expofefl 

 to the open air. 



The above operation of fecundating, or, as the garden- 

 ers term it, fetting the fruit, fliould be performed the 

 fame day the flowers open ; and as foon as they are fully 

 expanded is the proper period. 



The female cr fruit-bearing fl.owers, arc readily diilin- 

 .guifhed at fight fi-om the males ; the former having always 

 the germen or embryo-fruit placed immeJiately under thi 

 bafe of the flower ; or in other words, the embryo-fruit 

 iflues forth with the flower-bud on its top, vifible from its 

 I 3 . fi^i^ 



