124 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



Third ; but being unattended to during the wars of York 

 and Lancaster, they soon after became entirely unknown, 

 until the reign of Henry the Eighth, when they were 

 again introduced to this kingdom. (Gough's British To- 

 pography, vol. I. p. 134.) 



Gerard gives the earliest directions for making hot- 

 beds for cucumbers in this country, when gardening was 

 in its infant state. He directs, that they should be 

 covered with mats over hoops, as glasses were not then 

 known. 



Lord Bacon says, " cucumbers will prove more tender 

 and dainty if their seeds be steeped (little) in milk : the 

 cause may be, for that the seed being mollified in milk, 

 will be too weak to draw the grosser juices of the earth, 

 but only the finer." He adds, " cucumbers will be less 

 watery if the pit where you set them be filled up half-way 

 with chaff or small sticks, and then pour earth upon 

 them; for cucumbers, as it seemeth, do exceedingly 

 affect moisture, and over-drink themselves, which this 

 chaff or chips forbiddeth." This author also states, that 

 " it hath been practised to cut off the stalks of cucum- 

 bers, immediately after bearing, close by the earth ; and 

 then to cast a pretty quantity of earth upon the plant 

 that remain eth, and they will bear the next year fruit, 

 long before the ordinary time. The cause may be, for 

 that the sap goeth down the sooner, and is not spent in 

 the stalk or leaf, which remaineth after the fruit ; where 

 note, that the dying in the winter of the roots of plants 

 that are annual, seemeth to be partly caused by the over- 

 expense of the sap into stalk and leaves ; which being 

 prevented, they will superannuate, if they stand warm." 

 Miller informs us, that the cuttings of cucumbers, taken 

 off about five or six inches long, from healthy plants in 

 the summer crop, at the end of September or beginning 



