MITCHAM I ITS PHYSIC GARDENERS AND PLANTS. 
31 
finest oil is drawn for two and a half hours — that which comes af- 
terwards is second or third quality. The oil from the stalk is not 
so volatile as the other, and comes last. 
III. WILD OR SQUIRTING CUCUMBER. 
We know of but two places in England where the wild cucum- 
ber (Mormordica Elaterinrri, Linn,) is cultivated for commercial 
purposes ; these are Mitcham in Surrey, and Ampthill, in Bed- 
fordshire. The London market is chiefly supplied from the former 
place. 
This plant is a native of the south of Europe, but flourishes 
well by cultivation in this country. It is essentially an annual ; 
but Mr. Arthur, of Mitcham, assures us that if the roots be co- 
vered up during the winter, the plants survive through several sea- 
sons, and he has now some which have lived three or four years. 
So that it would appear that, if carefully protected from the win- 
ter cold, its life is prolonged, and from an annual the plant becomes 
a perennial. 
The seeds are usually sown about March, and the seedlings 
planted out about June. A considerable number of the Mitcham 
plants are self sown. When they grow very large and free, the 
stems become extraordinarily broad and flat. We have now one 
before us, whose stem, as it issues from the earth, is round, and 
about as thick as the forefinger ; but it gradually becomes flat and 
larger, until at its broadest part it is nearly four inches wide 
and half an inch thick. 
A wet season is injurious to the fructification of this plant ; 
and the present season, we are informed, has been a bad one at 
Mitcham. 
The only part of the plant which is of use is the fruit, which, 
as is well known, is remarkable for bursting when ripe, and ex- 
pelling its seeds with a portion of its juice with great violence to 
a considerable distance (some say as far as eighteen or twenty 
yards,) whence the name of the plant — the squirting cucumber. 
The fruits, which have arrived at maturity are of a yellowish 
green color; and the slightest touch at this period will disengage 
the fruit from its footstalk, and cause the violent expulsion of the 
seeds. It is, in fact, dangerous to walk among the plants at this 
period ; for painful irr itation of the eyes is sometimes produced by 
the contact of the juice with the conjunctiva. 
