worthy of remark, that they never partake of the properties of
the pulp with which they are surrounded in the fruit.

The Cucumber does not possess the properties common to the order, in very
powerful degree; its fruit is however too cold for many persons, causing
flatulency, diarrhoea, and even cholera; by others, it may be eaten with
avidity, without producing any injurious effects.

The names by which the Cucumber is recognised by the Hindoos, are
_Ketimon_, and _Timou_. In the French, it is called _Concombre_; in the
German, _Gurke_; and in the Italian, _Citriuolo_. As a cultivated plant,
it is of nearly equal antiquity with the Vine; being mentioned by the
writer of the Pentateuch, as being cultivated extensively in Egypt, above
3000 years since.

The cultivation of this plant, and the production of fine fruit at an
early season, is an object of emulation among gardeners of the present
day; and from this cause, many important improvements in the mode of its
cultivation have been effected. The vast increase of means, arising from
an acquaintance with powerful agents, formerly unknown, which are
available by the present and rising races of gardeners, enable them to
secure the same important results which cost their predecessors much both
of labour and anxiety, with a comparatively small amount of the former,
and a degree of certainty at which they could never arrive. The agents
which an enlightened age has brought under controul, are indeed powerful
engines, which require much skill in their adaptation and management; but
the knowledge necessary to effect this, is so firmly and inseparably
connected with the first principles of cultivation, that an acquaintance
with these, will at all times supply a safe and unerring guide to their
application.

It is to assist the young gardener in this application of principles, to
the growth of the Cucumber in the winter season, that these pages are
designed; and of those who may differ from the opinions which are here
expressed, it is only required that they should receive a calm and
deliberate consideration--a consideration unbiassed by prejudice, and
unmixed with any of that feverish excitement after novelties, which with
gardeners, as well as with all other classes of society, is becoming far
too prevalent, and intense.

CHAP. II.

ON THE STRUCTURES ADAPTED FOR THE GROWTH OF CUCUMBERS.

I will preface the following remarks on the structures adapted for the
grow