140 



DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. 



lobed, terminal lobe largest. Fruit cylindrical, 5 to 10 inches long, and from 

 2 to 4 inches in diameter. When young, the surface is besprinkled with 

 tubercles, armed with rigid, sharp bristles, which fall off at a later state. 

 Green, turning yellow when ripe. Seeds very numerous, yellowish-white, 

 three eighths of an inch long and less than two eighths wide, oblanceolate, 

 flattened ; about twelve hundred weigh an ounce, and they retain their vitality 

 about ten years, if kept from the air. 



Varieties. — The cucumber sports freely, and many varieties are under 

 cultivation. There are about thirty choice kinds recommended by seedsmen. 

 The Cluster, Early French, White Spine, and Early Russian are among the 

 most desirable for the market garden. 



Amateurs favor other varieties, but the above four are the most popular. 

 Geography. — The zone of the cucumber is very broad. It grows well in 

 rich soil wherever there are three or four mouths without frost, but requires 



warm nights and hot days 

 to be prolific. 



Etymology. — Cucumis is 

 Latin, and signifies a vessel, 

 alluding to the rind of the 

 fruit, Avhich when the pulp 

 is removed forms a cup 

 which may be used for 

 drinking. It is said to be 

 derived from the Celtic 

 word cttcc, a hollow vessel, 

 or from the Latin cucuma, 

 a cooking-vessel. Sativus, 

 the specific name, is Latin, and signifies sown, or cultivated. Cucumber, the 

 common name, is a corruption of the word cucumis, the generic name. 



History. — The home of the cucumber is the northwest of India and the region 

 north of Afghanistan, and it was no doubt taken into the Levant and southern 

 Asia at a very early period in history. It was under cultivation in Hindustan 

 three thousand years before the Christian era, and was known to the ancient 

 Greeks. 



It is by no means certain that the plant referred to under the name cucumber 

 in Scripture wa£> the Cucumis sativus. Nothing has appeared on the Egyptian 

 monuments to prove that the Israelites became accpiainted with it during the 

 period of their bondage, but it is possible that it reached them in Syria from 

 the East. 



It worked its way into southern Europe and Africa by commerce and travel, 

 was brought to America in the days of Columbus, and has become one of our 

 most important garden crops about our great cities. 



Use. — It is largely used raw when in an unripe state, as a salad, with a 

 salt and vinegar dressing, and as a pickle, in America, Europe, and especially 

 in southern Russia among the peasantry, by whom it is stored in casks under 

 heavy weight, and allowed to heat and reach the vinous fermentation, Avhen it 

 is eaten with coarse bread, serving the purpose of butter or oil. In the South- 

 ern States, in North America, it is sliced, fried in oil or butter, and served up 

 as egg plant is. 



2. C. melo, L. (Muskmelon. Cantaloupe.) Stem rough, hairy, 5 to 10 feet 

 long, trailing. Leaves heart-shaped, or somewhat kidney-shaped, with rounded 



Cucumis sativus ^CiuMiniber). 



