576 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. PART III. 



gathering in about fifteen, eighteen, or twenty days from the time of setting ; and often 

 in succession, for two or three months or more, in the same bed, by good culture. The 

 above artificial operation will be found both necessary and effectual in forcing the cucum- 

 ber, between the decline of autumn and May, while the plants are mostly shut under 

 glass. In plants more freely exposed to the free air, in the increasing warmth of spring, 

 and in having the full open air in summer, from June or July till September, the im- 

 pregnation is effected mostly or wholly by nature. The male flowers, being by some ig- 

 norantly denominated false blossoms, are often plucked wholly off as useless, under a 

 notion of strengthening the plant : but this should not be generally done. Where crowded 

 too thick in clusters, some may be thinned out moderately ; but their agency being abso- 

 lutely necessary in fertilising the females, they should only be displaced as they begin to 

 decay, except where they are superabundant." 



3232. M'Phail observes, " It is the female blossoms or flowers that bear the fruit ; but if they were not 

 to be impregnated by the male flowers, they would prove barren and unfruitful. The female blossoms are 

 easily to be distinguished from the male ones, for the rudiment of the fruit is apparent at the bottom of 

 the female flowers, and the flowers have no stamina, but have three small-pointed filaments without sum- 

 mits : whereas the male blossoms have not any rudiment of fruit about them, but in the centre of the 

 flower are three short stamina, which are inserted in the impalement. When the female or fruit blos- 

 soms are in full blow, take a male blossom which is in full blow, and holding it in one hand, with the other 

 split, and tear off' the flower-leaves or petals, taking care not to hurt the stamina or male part. Then hold 

 the male blossom thus prepared between the finger and thumb of the right hand, and with the left hand 

 gently lay hold of the female blossom, and holding it between two fingers, put the prepared male blossom 

 into the centre of the female blossom, and there the farina, pollen, or dust of the anthera, clings or sticks to 

 the stigma, and thus the impregnation of the fruit is effectuated, and the plants are thereby rendered fruit- 

 ful, which, being in frames in a climate by art made for them, would otherwise in a great degree be ren- 

 dered barren and unproductive ; and which I have frequently known to have been the case, even when at 

 the same time the plants were in a vigorous flourishing state. Generally leave the prepared part of the 

 male blossom sticking in the centre of the female one, and take a fresh male blossom to every female blos- 

 som. But if male blossoms run scarce, which seldom or never happens, make one male blossom do for two 

 or three female ones." 



3233. Nicol states, that cucumbers will grow and will arrive at full size without the female flowers 

 being impregnated ; the seeds, however, will prove abortive. The directions he gives for impregnating 

 are in substance the same as those of M'Phail. The fruit being set and swelling, some lay fragments of 

 glass or slate beneath it, in order to keep it clean, and to admit as much air and light as possible to the 

 under side, so as to cause its approach in greenness to the upper. 



3234. Gathering the crop. Cucumbers are used green or unripe, and before they have 

 attained their full size. They are cut and gathered when four, five, six, or eight inches 

 long, according to the kinds. To this size they attain in ten days, or a fortnight, in the 

 best part of the season. 



3235. To save seed. " Select some best summer fruit, from good productive plants ; 

 which permit to continue in full growth till they become yellow. Then cut them from 

 the vine, and place them upright on end, in the full sun, for two or three weeks ; when 

 they may be cut open, and the seed being washed out from the pulp, spread it to dry 

 and harden : then put it up in papers or bags for future sowing. It will remain good 

 many years: and seed of three or four years' keeping is preferable for early frame 

 crops." 



3236. Cultivation of t/ie cucumber in a flued jrit. Nicol says, " Those who would 

 have cucumbers on the table at Christmas, (a thing sometimes attempted,) will find it 

 more practicable, and less troublesome, if the plants be grown in a flued pit, in the 

 manner of late melons, than if they grow on a common hot-bed. In this case the 

 cucumbers should take place of the melons planted in this compartment in July, and 

 which will, by the middle or end of the month, have ripened off all their fruit of any 

 consequence. 



3237. Sow the seeds of some of the early sorts (those best for early being also best for late,) " in small 

 pots, about the first of July, and place them in the pit along with the melons, or under a hand-glass on a 

 slow dung-heat ; where let the plants be nursed, and be prepared for planting about the second or third 

 week in the month. Observe to sow old seeds, not those saved this season, which would run more to 

 vines than to fruit. Let the pit be prepared for their reception, by trenching up the bark or dung, and by 

 adding fresh materials, in so far as to produce a moderate growing heat ; observing the directions given 

 for preparing the pit for the melons in July, and moulding it (however with proper cucumber earth) all 

 over, to the depth of a foot or fourteen inches. The plants may be placed closer in planting them out, 

 than is necessary in a spring hot-bed. They may be planted at the distance of a yard from one another, 

 and two rows lengthwise in the pit, as they will not grow very vigorously at this late season. They 

 should be moderately supplied with water once in four or five days, and should always be watered over 

 the foliage ; the more especially when strong fire-heat becomes necessary, as cucumbers naturally like a 

 moist rather than a dry heat. The temperature should be kept up to about 64 or 65 degrees in the night, 

 by the aid of the flues, and by matting, or otherwise covering the pit. Air should be as freely admitted as 

 the state of the weather will allow ; and so as to keep the mercury down, in sunshine, to about 70 degrees. 

 The plants will require little other pruning than to stop the vines, as they show fruit, at a joint or two 

 above it ; for they will not push many superfluous shoots. Observe to pick off all damped leaves as they 

 appear ; and otherwise carefully attend to them, as above directed, while they continue to flourish, or to 

 do any good worthy of such attendance." 



3238. Cultivation of the cucumber in M'Phail's brick-bed or frame. " When I used," 

 observes M' Phail, " to cultivate cucumbers on a dung -bed, the fruit were sometimes 

 watery and ill-tasted ; but after I began to cultivate them on a brick-bed, the fruit were 

 constantly firm and well-flavored ; which is certainly occasioned by the goodness and 

 wholesomeness of the food with which the plants are fed or nourished." Besides this ob- 

 jection, M'Phail mentions several others, the principal of which are 



