CUCUMBER. 9i 



generally show fruit. Should that not happen to 

 be the case, a second stopping must be resorted to ; 

 and from the laterals produced by such a process, 

 there will be a sufficiency of fruit to set. A number 

 of male blossoms generally accompanies the lateral 

 shoots in clusters: these should be moderately 

 thinned, for if the whole were left on, they would 

 only weaken the plant ; but they must be by no 

 means all rubbed off, as these flowers are of the 

 most essential service at this time of the year, there 

 being now no bee to impregnate the female bloom, 

 even in the finest days that can be relied on ; we 

 must therefore have recourse to art, by which it is 

 curious to observe how nature can be assisted 

 throughout the most dreary months ki the year, by 

 what the gardeners call setting the fruit of early 

 cucumbers or melons. Such an operation is al- 

 lowed to be the most curious in gardening, and 

 was but slightly put in practice till the rage for 

 early cucumbers and melons commenced towards 

 the end of the sixteenth century, and v/hich has 

 been increasing from that to the present time. 

 The operation is performed in the following man- 

 ner : as soon as a female blossom appears fully ex- 

 panded, and in a state of sufficient forwardness, 

 select one of the strongest of the male blossoms 

 with a foot-stalk to it, which carefully divest of the 

 petals or flower leaves from about the stamens 

 and antherae ; then taking it between the thumb and 

 finger, let it be inserted with the top downwards 

 into the centre of the three stigmas (the principal 

 parts of fructification) of the female flower ; and by 

 giving it a gentle twirl, the farina or male dust is 



