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LXXIII. Brief practical Observations on the Cultivation of 

 the Cucumber, in the Royal Gardens at Kew, during the 

 Autumn and Winter Months. By William Townsend 

 Aiton, Esq. F. L. S. $c Gardener to His Majesty. 



Read January 7, 1817. 



A r e g u lar supply of Cucumbers being annually required 

 for the royal tables, seeds of a suitable kind were sown this 

 year on the 12th and 20th of August ; the compost for the 

 several shillings was previously prepared as follows : of light 

 loam, a few months from the common, one third part ; the 

 best rotten dung one third part ; leaf mould and heath-earth 

 of equal parts, making together one third part ; the whole 

 well mixed for use. 



The seed pans were sown and placed in a one-light 

 box, on a well prepared hot-bed ; when the cotyledons or 

 seed leaves became nearly of full growth, the plants were 

 potted out two into each pot, known to gardeners about 

 London by the name of upright thirty-twos. When these 

 pots became filled with roots, the plants were again shifted 

 into larger ones called sixteens, and removed from the seed- 

 bed into a three-light frame, with a sufficient bottom heat 

 to allow a considerable portion of air being given day and 

 night, both in the front and back of the frame. About the 

 middle of September the plants having again filled their pots 

 with roots and become stocky, were taken from the frame 

 to the stove and after a few days received the last shifting 



