- the summer. 
CUCUMBER. 
the end of May or in the early part of June. 
The occasional protection of frames and glasses 
should be continued beyond the middle of June, 
over the later spring crops, in order to extend the 
regular successional supply of fruit throughout 
A maximum of heat with protec- 
tion from the direct play of the sun’s rays should 
be studied in the selection of the border for the 
open-ground sowings. The influence of cold 
damp nights and of autumnal strong dews and 
heavy rains will arrest the growth of the later 
open-ground crops about the middle of Septem- 
ber; and the protection of frames and glasses 
should then be given to avert the effects of the 
inclemency of the weather, and a small lining of 
warm litter should be laid round the outside of 
the beds to produce the eliminated heat of fer- 
mentation. The atmosphere in which cucumbers 
are grown, whether in a frame, under a hand- 
glass, or beneath a shading in the open ground, 
ought to be warm, damp, and free from the eva- 
porating and chemical action of direct sunshine. 
The play of calorific light upon any plants stimu- 
lates the formation of whatever secretions are na- 
| tural to them, and as the natural secretions of 
the cucumber fruit are bitter and consolidating, 
the effect of a play of sunshine upon them while 
they are growing, is to destroy both their delicacy 
of flavour and their soft, succulent, grateful 
fleshiness of texture. Hence the reason why 
cucumbers grown during the dark and cloudy 
part of the year are frequently superior to such 
as are grown in summer. 
“When the bed,” says Mr. Allen, “is nearly 
level by the repeated application of fresh mould, 
and the plants begin to send forth their runners, 
with your finger and thumb clear them nearly of 
all false or male blossoms, and rub out every other 
eye in each runner; those eyes which are left 
will break out amazingly strong, and grow very 
fast, their leaves become a tremendous size, and 
when fruit appears, it will in the first instance 
be much finer than by any other system. I have 
‘very often had them three inches and a half be- 
fore the blossom is expanded. By the repetition 
of this mode of culture, as the plants advance in 
growth, they will never be in so crowded a state 
as to require the aid of a pruning-knife. * ~* 
We all know that cucumbers are not grown to 
the length of 20 or 30 inches at Christmas time ; 
but in the spring, say April or May, if a brace is 
required for a particular purpose, they may be 
obtained with an addition to the treatment be- 
fore spoken of. I need not state that the plants 
at this season are very strong, the infant fruit of 
unusual size, and may be made to travel at an 
extraordinary pace, as much as two inches in six 
hours, 14 inches in three days, and to perfection 
of 27 inches long, in eight days from their being 
set. * * If any fruit should offer symptoms 
of being bent, they should be put in the right 
path in the following manner: when they have 
CUDWEED. 913 
when the heat is at the highest degree, is the 
best time to perform this operation, as in the 
morning the fruit will be found quite stiff and 
brittle; but when the sun has acted upon the 
plants, and the fruit warmed through, it will, at : 
this age, bend like leather; you may put it into | 
any position you please, or pull it out half an 
inch occasionally ; lay it on a strip of glass, and | 
with three pieces of stick, one at each end of the 
fruit and one in the middle, with a piece of list 
between the fruit and the stick to prevent its 
being marked ; it is better than a trough or cylin- 
der, as it is not confined; the colour will remain 
very green.” —Allen’s Treatise on the Cucumber.— 
The Gardener's Gazette—Mawe.— Miller. —Loudon. 
—Johnson.— Museum Rusticum.— Penny Cyelo- 
pedia. 
CUCUMBER-TREE. See PuriapELpuus. 
CUCUMIS. See CucumpEr. 
CUCURBITA. See Gourp. 
CUD. The food which is brought up from the 
first stomach, rechewed, and sent down to the 
second stomach, by ruminating animals. Chew- 
ing the cud is the popular phrase for rumination. 
The loss of cud, or ceasing to ruminate, is a symp- 
tom of inflammatory diseases and of general de- 
bility. | 
CUDBEAR,—botanically ZLecanora Tartarea. 
A species of the coenothalamous tribe of lichens. 
The genus Lecanora, to which it belongs, com- 
prises about 50 known British species, and be- 
tween 30 and 40 described species of other coun- 
tries. Its name signifies a basin, and alludes to 
the shield-like form of its fructification. Its 
plants are spreading and crustaceous, and closely 
adhere to the substances on which they grow; 
and its apothecia is thick and presses on the 
crust with a plain convex coloured disc. The 
cudbear species is about two inches high, and 
grows at all seasons of the year on greyish rocks. 
Its crust exhibits a profusion of tartar-like gran- 
ules; its fructification is scattered; and its disc 
is flesh-coloured and a little wrinkled. It is ex- 
tensively employed, particularly in some of the 
manufactories of Glasgow, for dyeing a purple 
colour ; it was formerly obtained in large quanti- 
ties from some of the rocky districts of the Scot- 
tish Highlands; and it is now extensively im- 
ported from Norway. Several other species of 
Lecanora, particularly Z. perellus, and L. cande- 
laria, are also used, though to a far less extent 
than cudbear, for dyeing. 
CUDWHED, — botanically Gnaphalium Ger- 
manicwm. A curious annual weed, of the thistle 
division of Compositee. It was called by Linnzeus 
Filago Germaniea. It grows in sandy fields of 
both England and Scotland. Its stem is white, 
slender, and from 8 to 12 inches high; its herb- 
age is cottony; and its flowers have a yellowish- 
brown colour, and appear from June till August. 
It was formerly regarded as medicinal ; and it is 
still sometimes used by the peasantry to lay 
been set four days, in the middle of the day, or | among linen for preserving them from moths. 
I 
3M. 
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