132 



Cowper has beautifully described the 

 method 



To raise the prickly and green coated gourd, 

 So grateful to the palate ; and when rare, 

 So coveted ; else base and disesteem'd, 

 Food for the vulgar merely. 



The Rev. Griffith Hughes, in his Natural 

 History of Barbadoes, mentions the wild cu- 

 cumber-vine as indigenous to that part of the 

 world. It is called by Father Plumier, an- 

 guria fructu echinato eduli: he describes the 

 fruit as a small cucumber, whose surface is 

 covered with many soft pointed prickles : 

 it is sometimes eaten ; but is esteemed to be 

 of too cold a nature to be wholesome. 



Lunan, in his Hortus Jamaicensis men- 

 tions the small wild cucumber as being a 

 native of Jamaica, where it grows very plen- 

 tifully, and is often used with other herbs 

 in soups, and is a very agreeable ingredient : 

 the rind is thickly beset with blunt prickles. 

 Sloane mentions it as a pale green oval fruit, 

 as big as a walnut, and says it is eaten very 

 greedily by sheep and cattle. 



The ancients used the wild cucumber as 



a sovereign remedy in various complaints. 



" The best kind," says Pliny, " was found in 



Arabia, and the next about Cyrene and 



Arcadia/' 



