442 C U C 
50. Cuculus chryfocephalus,the yellow-headed cuckoo : 
plumage 0:1 the head yellow ; fhoulders lead-colour ; 
quill-feathers black ; tail yellowifh-brown, with nume¬ 
rous black bars ; lower part of the back pale brown ; 
rump draw-colour; bread and upper part of the belly 
cinereous, waved with brown. Inhabits South America. 
51. Cuculus cupreus, the cupreous cuckoo : general 
cad of the plumage golden-copper ; belly and thighs 
yellow ; tail wedge-lhaped ; one or two of the outer 
feathers on each fide with a triangular white fpot at the 
extremity ; bill and legs black; fize of a lark. Inhabits 
Africa. 
52. Cuculus regius, the royal cuckoo: plumage black, 
with a blue glofs; quill-feathers crimfon ; bill red, 
with a yellow front; back of the head purple ; from the 
hind part of the mandibles, on each fide, is a dripe of 
white, running towards the nape ; legs brown. Inhabits 
the interior parts of Africa. 
53. Cuculus poliocephalus, the grey-headed cuckoo : 
body above brown-afh ; beneath white, barred with 
grey ; tail wedge-lhaped, the feathers black, with dulky 
bars. Inhabits India. 
54. Cuculus Sonneratii, Sonnerat’s cuckod: plumage 
driated with black; above rufous-brown, beneath white; 
tail feathers fpotted with black ; (ize of a blackbird ; 
bill, irides, and legs, yellow. Inhabits India. 
55. Cuculus hepaticus, the liver-coloured cuckoo : 
plumage undulated with brown and black ; rump ferru¬ 
ginous ; bill, tips of the wings, and bands on the tail, 
black ; beneath whitifh, waved with black ; legs yel¬ 
low ; tail feathers rudy-brown, barred with black, tipt 
with white, and with a fmall white terminal fpot. Length 
thirteen inches and a half. 
CU'CUMBER, f. [cucumis, Lat.] The name of a 
creeping plant, and alfo of the fruit of that plant. See 
Cucumis. 
How cucumbers along the furface creep, 
With crooked bodies and with bellies deep. Drydcn. 
CU'CUMIS, f. [from jiu-vo?, or crw.voq, Gr. and that 
from Heb. Kp'p. Varro fays, Cucumeres dicuntur a curvore, 
ut curvimeres diEli. ] In botany, the Cucumber, Melon, 
See. a genus of the clafs monoecia, order fyngenefia, na¬ 
tural order of cucurbitaceae. The generic characters are 
• —I. Male flowers. Calyx: perianthium one-leafed, bell- 
fhaped, the margin terminated by five fubulate teeth. 
Corolla : five-parted, growing to the calyx, bell-lhaped; 
divilions ovate, veiny-wrinkled. Stamina: filaments 
three, very Ihort, inferted into the calyx, converging, of 
which two are bifid at the tip ; the antherae are lines 
creeping upwards and downwards, outwardly adnate ; 
receptacle three-edrnered, truncated, in the center of the 
flower. • II. Female flowers on the fame plant with the 
males. Calyx: perianthium as in the males, fuperior, 
deciduous. Corolla: as in the males. Stamina: none; 
filaments three, acuminate, very fmall, without antherae. 
Piftillum: germ inferior, large; ftyle cylindric, very 
fliort; ftigmas three, thick, gibbous, two-parted, turned 
outwards. Pericarpium: pome, (berry, Gaertner,) three 
or four-celled ; cells membranaceous, foft, feparate in¬ 
to two fecondary ones. Seeds : numerous, ovate-acute, 
comprefled, placed in a double order.— EJfential CkaraElcr. 
Calyx five-toothed ; corolla five-parted. Male. Fila- 
ments three. Female. Piftillum three-cleft; pome with 
argute feeds. 
Species. 1. Cucumis colocynthis, bitter cucumber, or 
gourd, or coloquintida: leaves multifid; fruits globular, 
frnooth. Thefe are all annual plants, with herbaceous 
fcandent Items. Coloquintida has leaves of a dark green, 
rough, and deeply laciniated, in the manner of thofe of 
the citrul, butlmaller; the Items are rough, and trail¬ 
ing, like thole ot bryony. The flowers are rather fmall, 
anl ot a dull yellowilh colour; the fruit is round, of the 
fize of an orange.; it is green at firft, but grows yellow 
wnen quite ripe; the pulp or internal part is light, 
cue 
fpongy, and white, and is moil intenfely and intolerably 
bitter; it is this fubftance dried which is the coloquin¬ 
tida of the (hops ; it is an extremely ftrong and irritating 
cathartic, and has been fometimes commended, not only 
as an efficacious purgative, but alfo as an alterative, in 
obftinate chronical diforders ; others, however, have con- 
fidered it as a dangerous drug : its principal ufe has been 
that of a ftimulus to other purgative medicines ; thus an 
extract of colocynth has been fometimes ordered in con- 
jundtion with aloes, and for mixing with various purga¬ 
tive pills, &c. Its native place is unknown. Gerarde 
fays, it has been delivered unto him for a truth, that co¬ 
loquintida grows in the fands of the Mediterranean fea- 
fliore wild, efpecially at that fide of Barbary, as alfo 
without the mouth of the ftraits, near to Santa Cruz, &c. 
It flowers from May to Auguft. 
. 2. Cucumis prophetarum, or globe cucumber: leaves 
cordate, five-lobed, toothletted, obtufe; fruits globular, 
fpiny-muricate. This plant is lmaller in every part than 
the common melon, and has a naufeous odour; the fruits 
are frnooth, but armed with foft and innocent prickles 
fcattered upon them ; they are variegated with uncertain 
ftreaks, alternately greenifh and yellowifli ; their bitter- 
nefs equals that of coloquintida. Native of the Levant; 
flowering from June to September. 
3. Cucumis anguria, or round prickly-fruited cucum¬ 
ber: leaves palmate-finuate; fruits globular, echinate. 
Flowers fmall, like thofe of bryony. The fruit is eaten 
when green by the inhabitants of the Weft-Indian illands, 
where it is indigenous, as cucumbers; but far inferior to 
our common cucumber. The fruit leldom grows fo 
large as a pigeon’s egg, and is in fttape like it; but the 
rind is clofely befet with blunt prickles, fomewhat like 
the Ikin of a hedgehog : where it is expofed to the full 
air, it is of a dark green colour, but when it is clofely 
covered, either by the leaves or weeds, it is white. The 
fruit is frequently ufed in the fugar illands, with other 
herbs, in foups; and is efteemed an agreeable and whole- 
fome ingredient in them. It flowers in July and Auguft. 
4. Cucumis Africanus, or African cucumber: leaves 
palmate-finuate ; Item angular ; fruits oval, echinate. 
Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
5. Cucumis acutangulus, or acute-angled cucumber: 
leaves rounded-angular; fruits with ten acute angles. 
Flowers yellow ; males terminating, on many-flowered 
peduncles; females lateral, folitary. Fruits ovate or ob¬ 
long, obtufe, five inches long, brownifli-yellow, frnooth. 
Seeds fuboval, comprefled, iinooth, black, looking as if 
they had been chewed, as in anguria. The fruit is very 
infipid, but it is eaten boiled and pickled. Native of 
India; flowering from June to September. 
6. Cucumis melo, common or inulk-melon : angles of 
the leaves rounded ; fruits torulofe. Melon, or mufk- 
melon, has the Items procumbent or trailing to a great 
length, and very much branched, furnifhed with tendrils 
for climbing. Leaves palmate-finuate, or entire, waving 
about the edge and (lightly toothed, with rounded cor¬ 
ners ; rough with briftles. Flowers pale yellow, late¬ 
ral, folitary; calyx covered with white hairs; corolla 
wrinkled, ribbed, and having bridles along the ribs on 
the outlide. The female flowers, as they are commonly 
called, have four large antherae, and the germ is fubglo- 
bular and covered with white hairs. This difeovery of 
the flowers commonly called females being real herma¬ 
phrodites, with fertile antherae, as they feem to be, makes 
it probably lefs neceflary to carry the males to them, as 
pradtifed by fome gardeners, though nature having pro¬ 
vided male flowers, it is mod likely that the pollen to 
the antherae of the others is frequently defective. Fruit 
roundiih or oval, blunt, commonly furrowed longitudi¬ 
nally, fometimes netted, fometimes warted or carbuncled, 
from four to ten or twelve inches in length and diameter, 
yellowifli green or white ; pulp firm, mulky, reddilh, 
leldom green. Seeds many, oblong, pale, in a watery 
pulp. It was firft introduced into Europe from Perfia. 
