CUCUMBER 



little taste and is mostly water, yet it is and has been persistently 

 sought by the human race. 



The plant will grow in rich soil wherever there are three or four 

 months without frost, but it can transmute air and water and 

 carbonic acid into fruit only under the stimulus of consider- 

 able, or rather of continuous heat. It requires a warm root-run; 



Cucumber. Citcumis sativus 



as soon as the ground cools the vine's work is over. Not all the 

 flowers produce cucumbers; those that grow in clusters never do, 

 they have stamens but no pistils; the pistillate fruit-producing 

 blossoms are solitary. 



Cucumis melo includes the Muskmelon in all its varieties, which, 

 like the Cucumber, is an Indian plant, but has also been found wild 

 in western Africa, in Guinea, and along the banks of the Niger. 

 It is cultivated by the human race wherever the climate will permit. 

 The rough, hairy, trailing stem grows five to ten feet long, bearing 

 heart-shaped leaves with rounded lobes. The blossoms are polyg- 

 amo-monoecious; that is, pistillate, staminate, and perfect flowers 

 are found on the same plant. Gardeners say that the melons 

 produced by the perfect flowers have the better flavor. The fruit 

 is globose, cylindrical, or ovate. The seeds have great vitality, 

 which has doubtless aided in the wide-spread dissemination of the 

 plant. 



433 



