MULE CUCUMBER. ggl 



XI. 



Extract of a Letter from Mr. J, Aston of Ipswich, givhig 

 an Account of a Mule Cucumber, and other Ohjects. 



JL Have taken the liberty of sending you a curious produc- Curious natural 



lion of nature, which was produced in the following man- ^^° ^^ '**"* 



ner; Mr. Chapman, the proprietor of very extensive pineries 



in this town, had growing in one of his hot houses a plant of 



the cucumis colocynthis (coloquintida, or bitter apple), coTo"uimWa* 



which happened to put forth a male blossom a day or two impregnated a 



before it was removed into the open air. In the same house '^^'^f^"" ^"' 



' cumber. 



there were also growmg some plants of the common cucum- 

 ber also in blossom at some distance from the other plant. 

 It is supposed some of the farina was carried by a bee from 

 the blossom of the coloquintida to a female one of those on 

 the cucumber, which thus became impregnated, and pro- 

 duced the fruit I send you. Mr. Chapman says he noticed 

 the cucumber when about an inch and. a half or two inches 

 long, and it had every appearance of becoming a very fine 

 fruit, but soon afterward it began to swell, and continued to 

 do so till the other day, when he gathered it and presented 

 it to me, 



I had some thoughts of sending you a drawing of it, but, 

 as I am a very indifferent botanist, it struck me, that you 

 would not be able so well to imderstand its nature either by 

 delineation or description, as by seeing the fruit itself. Mr. 

 Chapman is an intelligent man, and has been for many years 

 engaged in horticultural pursuits*. You will perceive it is 

 what is called a mule fruit partaking of the nature of both 

 the parent plants. See PI. V, fig. 5. 



If you should be of opinion, that it is a circumstance 

 worth mentioning in your Journal, I beg you will do it in 

 any manner you please, and in a way that you think will Vje 

 most easily comprehended by botanists, to whom most pro- 

 bably the communication will be found acceptable. 



• This Effect, I am informed is not unfrequent, and is ascribed to bees. 

 Whole beds of melons have in some instances been thus spoiled, N. 



When 



