43(5 CUC 
below the top glades, a little behind the back walk of 
the (love ; putting laths for the vines to run upon., as 
they advance in length. Cuttings of cucumbers taken 
off'five or fix inches long from healthy plants in the 
fuminer crops, at the end of September or the beginning 
of October, planted in pots of rich mould, plunged into 
rhe bark-bed and fhaded till they have ft ruck, will pro¬ 
duce fruit before Chriftmas. By this method, or by 
laying, plants may be kept on from year to year. 
After all that can be.faid, in many points much will 
depend upon the experience, attention, and fagacity, of 
the gardener himfelf. 
Two centuries fmee (1597), in the infant ftate of gar¬ 
dening in this country, Gerarde gives directions tor 
making a hot-bed, whereon cucumbers, &c. may be 
raifed. It was to be made in the middle of April, or 
fomewhat fooner, of (table-dung, an ell in breadth and 
depth ; it was to be covered with hoops and poles, for 
glalfes were not then known; and at night mats, old 
painted cloth, or draw, were to be thrown over it ; the 
bed was to be covered with ricli earth finely lifted half a 
foot thick ; in this the feeds were to be fown; and the 
covering being put on, was to remain feven or eight days 
without being taken ofF; the plants being then come up 
were to be watered in the middle of the day with water 
that had flood in the houfe or in the fun ; the covering 
was to be put on every night and taken off every day; 
and when the plants had four or fix leaves, and the dan¬ 
ger of cold nights was paft, they were to be replanted 
very curioufiy with the earth (ticking to them as near as 
may be, unto the mod fruitful place, ancLwhere the fun 
hath mofl fpree in the garden ; covering them with dock 
leaves orwifps of draw, propped up with forked flicks, 
to keep them from the cold of the night and the heat of 
tiie fun. Parkinfon alfo, in 1029, gives directions for 
making a hot-bed of dung in the fame manner for me¬ 
lons ; and mentions the covering them with bell-g'lafles. 
The fiVfl account we find of raifing cucumbers in autumn 
to bring fruit about Chriftmas, is by Mr. Thomas Fow¬ 
ler, gardener to fir Nathaniel Gould, at Stoke Newing¬ 
ton ; he prefented the king with a brace of well-grown 
cucumbers on New Year’s day, 1721 ; the feeds were 
fown on the 25th of September. See Anguria, Me- 
j.othria, Momordica, and Sicyos. 
CUCUTHA,/. in medicine, an odoriferous cap for 
difeafes of the head. It is made like what is called 
the Jkuli-cap for children, of either filk or linen; it is 
double, and between its (ides are put cephalic aromatic 
drugs in powder; fometimes they are mixed with cot¬ 
ton, to keep them equally difperfed ; thefe fpices are 
alfo fprinkled with fome, luitable elfential oil, or fpirit, 
or vinegar; then the cap, being fewed round its edges, 
is placed next the head, and another over it. When to 
half of the fkull, or only to a particular part, it is to 
be applied, it is called a jemi-cucupha . The ingredients 
fhould be renewed when their virtue is worn off. The 
proportions of the fpecies are ufually as follow : of 
roots, an ounce ; of leaves, two or three handfuls; of 
flowers, two or three pugils; of gums, one or two 
drachms; of powders, one ounce ; the whole rarely .ex¬ 
ceeds four ounces. Cucophte aCt by the exhalations 
from the fpices they contain. They are apt to render the 
patient difagreeably fenfible to all changes of weather. 
CUCUR'BITA, f. \_a curvitate, according to Scaliger, 
the firft fyliable being doubled, as in cacula, populus, &c.j 
In botany, the Gourd, Pompion, and Water-Melon. 
This genus belongs to the clafs monoeeb, order fynge- 
nelia, and natural order of cucurbitaceae. The generic 
characters are—I. Male flowers. Calyx: perianthium 
one-leafed, bell-fhaped, the margin terminated by five 
jfubulate teeth. Corolla: five-parted, growing to the 
calyx, bell-fhaped; divifions veiny-rugofe ; nectary a 
gland in the center of the flower, concave, triangular. 
Stamina : filaments three, converging, connected above, 
diftinct below, growing to the calyx; antherae creeping 
CUC 
upwards and downwards, linear. II. Female flowers. 
Calyx: perianthium as in the male, fupericr, deciduous. 
Corolla : as in the male ; nectariferous glandule concave, 
fpreading. Stamina: margin furrounding, ending in three 
very fhort cufps. Piftillum: germ large, inferior; ftyle 
conic, three-cleft at the tip ; ftigma Angle, with a thick 
convex margin, creeping upwards and downwards, three- 
cleft. Pericarpium : pome, three to fix-celled; cells 
membranaceous, foft, diftinCt, two-parted. Seeds: very 
many, compreffed, fwolfen on the margin, obtufe, placed 
in double order.— EJfcntial CharaElcr. Calyx, five-toothed; 
corolla, five-cleft. Male : filaments three. Female : 
piftillum five-cleft; feeds of the pome with a (welling 
margin. 
Species. 1. Cucurbita lagenaria, bottle gourd, or long 
gourd ; and the variety, / 3 . Cucurbita lignofa, of Miller: 
leaves fomewhat angular, tomentofe, biglandular at the 
bafe underneath ; fruits woody. The plants of this ge¬ 
nus are very nearly allied to thofe of cucumis, and are 
diftinguifhed from it chiefly by the (welling rim of the 
feed. Like them they are annual, with trailing herba¬ 
ceous ftems, furnifhed with tendrils for climbing. The 
firft fpecies has the ftems thick, long, climbing, with 
tendrils, branched, extending near twenty feet in length, 
covered with a fine foft hairy down. Leaves cordate, 
roundilh, repand, toothletted, petioled, alternate, bi¬ 
glandular underneath, foft, afh-coloured, large. Flowers 
krge, white, on long peduncles, folitary, lateral; corolla 
fpreading, wrinkled, with acuminate divifions. Fruit 
fliaped like a bottle, with a large roundifh belly and a 
neck, very fmooth ; when ripe of a pale yellow colour, 
fome nearly fix feet long, and eighteen inches round ; 
the rind becoming hard, and, being dried, contains water. 
Seeds quadrangular-oblong, cut off and emarginate at 
the top, three-cornered and beaked at the bottom, edge 
keeled with a double raifed line, fmoothifh, of a pale 
bay colour. The Arabians call the bottle gourd charrak. 
The poor people ea-. it boiled, with vinegar; or fill the 
(hell with rice and meat, and thus make a kind of pud¬ 
ding of it. It grows in all parts of Egypt, and in Ara¬ 
bia, wherever the mountains are covered with rich foil. 
In Jamaica the fhells are generally ufed for water-cups, 
and frequently ferve for bottles among the negroes and 
poorer fort of white people in the country. A decodtion 
of the leaves is recommended much in purging’clyfters; 
and the pulp of the fruit is often employed in refolutive 
poultices ; it is bitter and purgative, and may be ufed in- 
ftead of coloquintida. 
( 3 . The lignofa, or large gourd, is cultivated on ac¬ 
count of the woody fliell of the fruit, which will fre¬ 
quently contain between twenty and thirty quarts. Where 
aloes is manufactured in any quantity, it is commonly 
preferred in thefe fhells, but in Jamaica they are ufed 
only to hold water and fmall grain. The fhells are of dif¬ 
ferent forms, fome fhaped like a pear, others like a bottle, 
others again like an orange. Native of both Indies. 
2. Cucurbita hifpida, or rough gourd: leaves angular, 
item and petioles hilpid. Native of Japan, where it flow¬ 
ers in September. 
3. Cucurbita ovifera, or egg gourd: leaves lobed ; 
fruits obovate ; tendrils in fevens, digitated. The herb 
and flowers are very like the pompion, but not fo rough. 
The leaves are not many-cleft, neither is the fruit bitter. 
The tendrils are ftraight, and end in fmaller fpiral ten¬ 
drils, ufually feven in number. Fruit fmooth and even, 
the fize and form of a hen’s egg, with a rind fo hard as 
fcarcely to be cut with a knife, painted with ten milk- 
white longitudinal lines. Native of Perfia, about Aftracan. 
4. Cucurbita pepo, or pompion, or pumpkin gourd : 
leaves lobed ; fruits glofly. , Stems thick, angular, ex¬ 
tremely hifpid, branched, climbing, by means of bifid 
tendrils, or fpreading to the diftance of forty feet, fo that 
a (ingle plant, if properly encouraged, and all the fide 
branches permitted to remain, will overfpread twenty 
reds of ground. Flowers yeilow, lateral, folitary, on pe¬ 
duncles 
