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CUCUMBER. CUCUMIS. 



Natural order, Cucurbit acea. A genus of the Monoecia 

 Syngenesia class. 



THE cucumber, which is one of the coldest fruits, is 

 evidently a native of a warm climate ; and by all the re- 

 searches we have been able to make, we conclude it be- 

 longs to the soil of some parts of Asia and Africa. It 

 seems to have been a common and favourite diet in Egypt 

 in very early times; as among the murmurings of the 

 Israelites when in the. wilderness we find them regretting 

 this vegetable. 



The Hebrews called it pp, from which the Greeks 

 named it K<xuo$, or Sixuo?, of whom the Latins derived 

 the word Cucumis, from which there is but little variation 

 in any of the European languages. 



We find cucumbers were cultivated by the Greeks, as 

 their earliest writers on Natural History have mentioned 

 them, and in particular recommend that the seeds should 

 be steeped for two days in milk and honey before they are 

 set, to make the fruit sweeter and pleasanter. Pliny 

 mentions the great quantities that grew in some parts of 

 Africa, and particularly in Barbary. All vegetables are 

 so formed as to perpetuate themselves by seed in the 

 climate where they originate ; for if this were not the 

 case, every species of plant that is not cultivated would 

 soon cease to exist ; and the cucumber has never been 

 found to grow in the natural state in any part of Europe. 



