126 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



The principal varieties of the cucumber are the Spring 

 Grove, or early frame; Southgate, or late frame; Hot- 

 house, or winter ; Green turkey ; White turkey. 



Cucumbers are much less used in their natural state 

 than formerly among wealthy families, but they are in 

 great request for stews and made-dishes, and, when pre- 

 served, they are esteemed one of the most agreeable 

 sweetmeats. As a pickle, girkins have been long ad- 

 mired ; but whoever purchases them, should be careful to 

 get them free from any substance that may have been used 

 to colour them. 



Lunan, in his account of the sativus, or cultivated 

 cucumber, says, " although cucumbers are neither sweet 

 nor acid, they are considerably acescent, and so produce 

 flatulency, cholera, diarrhrea," &c. Their coldness and 

 flatulency may be likewise in part attributed to the firm- 

 ness of their texture. 



They have been discharged, with little change, from 

 the stomach, after having been detained there for forty- 

 eight hours. By this means, therefore, their acidity is 

 greatly increased ; hence oil and pepper, the condiments 

 commonly employed, are very useful to check their fer- 

 mentation. Another condiment is sometimes used ; viz. 

 the skin of the cucumber, which is bitter, and may there- 

 fore supply the place of aromatics ; but it should only be 

 used when young. 



Brookes states, that the cucumber is unfit for nourish- 

 ment, and is generally offensive to the stomach, especially 

 if not corrected with a good deal of pepper as well as 

 vinegar. The seeds, he states, are reckoned among the 

 four greater cold seeds : therefore emulsions of them have 

 been prescribed in burning fevers, &c. 



Frederic Murell, a physician at Berlin, informs us, that 

 he cured a gentleman who was about twenty-one years of 

 age, of a consumption, which succeeded a profuse spitting 



