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which resemble them, are sterile or nearly so ; the Ponciere is 

 always seedless ; the large orange citron has a thin and acid 

 pulp, and never contains seed/ The Troon or Tabernacle citron 

 is so highly prized at Mogador by the faithful observers of Israel- 

 ite traditions, that specimens without blemish are sold at a very 

 high price. It is rather larger than a lemon, and is said to con- 

 tain only one pip, to be of a very fine nature, and to keep sound 

 for a very long period.^ 



Cucumber. Cucumis sativus, L. (Cucurhitace^). 



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This fruit consists of three carpels united together and form- 

 ing one cell, but having the ovules arranged on three lines which 



pass up the sides. It has been planted in gardens from most 



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ancient times, and often appears as an escape in suitable climates, 

 and has been described under a number of specific names^ There 

 are many varieties. Ibn-al-awam describes five in Spain in the 

 twelfth century. Parkinson in England, in 1629, describes six; 

 L'Horticulteur Francais, 1824, names seven kinds; Noisette, in 

 1829, names or describes ten sorts; the New York Agricultural 

 Experiment Station Report for 1887 describes twenty-six varie- 

 ties under one hundred and thirty-two synonyms. 



In the Geoponics, lib. xii. c. 19, directions are given how to raise 

 cucumbers without seed, so also by Palladius, and seedless cucum- 



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bers are mentioned by Ibn-al-awam, a Moorish-Spaniard of the 

 twelfth century. Loudon* says many persons prefer cucumbers 

 which have not been fecundated, on account of the mucli smaller 

 size of the seed integuments, which never contain kernels. These 

 seedless cucumbers of the English Frame varieties frequently ap- 

 pear under forced culture in our greenhouses, and also when grown 

 in the open afr. In 1882 an advertisement of Sharpe's Epicurian 

 Cucumber in the '* Gardener's Chronicle,'' ?ays it is '* a variety that 



<j^ seldom produces seeds, not one in a hundred containing a trace. 



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Large cucumbers of fine quality are usually little seedy. At the 

 New York Agricultural Experiment Station in 1885. the follow- 

 ing varieties contained but few seed as compared with the rest, 



1 Gallesio, Citrus Family, Fia. Agr. Trans, p. i6. 



2 Gard. Chron. Nov. 8, 1SS4, p. 601. 

 3Cogniaux in DC.» Monog. lii. 493. 

 4 Louclou, Hort. iS5o. p. 495. 



