CHAPTER XVI. 



THE CUCUMBER AND MELON. 



§ 1. — THE CUCUMBER. 



The common or cultivated Cucumber (Cucumis 

 sativus) has been cultivated in warm climates 

 for upwards of 3000 years. It was largely cul- 

 tivated in Egypt long before the exodus of the 

 Israelites, as we find the want of it in the 

 wilderness one of the grievances complained of 

 to Moses. It is mentioned in a particular 

 manner by several of the earliest Greek writers 

 on plants, some of whom recommend that the 

 seed should be steeped in milk and honey two 

 days before sowing, that a sweeter and more 

 pleasant flavour may be communicated to the 

 fruit. Similar opinions, although sufficiently 

 absurd, were held at a much more recent date, 

 and even the great Lord Bacon countenanced 

 such. Pliny informs us that they were much 

 grown in Africa as well as in Italy in his time, 

 and also that the Emperor Tiberius had them 

 served at his table every day in the year. The 

 means employed to effect this, he states, was to 

 grow the plants in beds mounted on wheels, so 

 that they might be removed from the open air 

 into covered buildings during winter and on 

 cold days. Columella, however, throws more 

 light upon their early cultivation. He says: 

 " Those who wish for them early should plant 

 the seeds in well-dunged earth, put into osier 

 baskets, that they may be carried out of the 

 house and placed in warm situations when the 

 weather is cold; and as soon as the season is 

 advanced, the plants may be sunk in the earth 

 with the baskets, or wheels may be put upon 

 large vases, that they may be brought out and 

 in with less labour." From an observation of 

 the same writer we learn that they were grown 

 in frames, covered with specularia, probably 

 talc, or some transparent mineral which the 

 Komans, even in his time, knew well how to 

 split into thin laminae, so that light might be 

 transmitted through it. From the knowledge 

 they also had of heating, (ride vol. i., Introduc- 

 tion), not only by flues but by hot water also, 

 we are led to the belief that this fruit was pretty 

 extensively forced during the days of Roman 

 splendour. And coming nearer the point, he 

 expressly says : " It was for Tiberius to show 

 that cucumbers might be grown fere toto anno, 

 which was done in frames filled with hot dung." 

 Their introduction to Britain is stated, in the 



" Hortus Britannicus," to have been in 1573; 

 but, in " Gough's British Topography , cucum- 

 bers are stated to have been common in the 

 time of Edward III. ; and during the wars of the 

 houses of York and Lancaster the plant was lost 

 by neglect, and was re-introduced during the 

 reign of Henry VIII. The first successful forcer 

 of the cucumber in England was Fowler, gar- 

 dener to Sir Nicholas Gould, who presented a 

 brace of the fruit to George I. on the 1st of 

 January 1721. 



Propagation. — The most usual mode is by 

 seed, and also often by cuttings. The seed is 

 often sown in shallow pans, and sometimes we 

 sow it in pots, to avoid the necessity of shifting 

 the plants when they have completed their 

 cotyledon leaves, and in such cases the pots are 

 crocked and filled about half full of soil ; three 

 or four seeds are dropped in, and covered about 

 half an inch in depth. When the plants are up, 

 they are thinned to one or two in each pot, and 

 as they advance in height the pots are filled up 

 with soil around them, and kept as near to the 

 glass as possible, yet plunged in a genial bottom- 

 heat. During autumn and winter the glass of 

 the roofs, whether of pits or frames, should be 

 kept as clean as possible by frequent washing, 

 so as to admit the greatest amount of light ; for 

 on this very much of our success must depend. 

 Those who have not the convenience of pits or 

 houses heated by hot water must have recourse 

 to the old dung-bed process. The seed-bed, 

 under such circumstances, need not exceed in 

 size a one-light frame, and this should be pre- 

 pared of well-fermented material by the first of 

 January or beginning of February for ordinary 

 spring and summer crops. If for cucumbers to 

 fruit during winter, this bed should be prepared 

 by the end of August, so that the plants may 

 become established before the days shorten. 

 By rearing the young plants in such a frame, 

 they can be kept nearer the glass, while at the 

 same time their roots are placed in a good 

 bottom-heat, which is not always so readily 

 effected in structures of a larger size. Indeed, it 

 is questionable whether this is not the best 

 plan for rearing both the melon and cucumber 

 from seed at any season of the year, and until 

 they are fit for planting out where they are to 

 produce their fruit. After that period, however, 

 no structure is worse adapted to them than the 



