THEORY AND PRACTICE,

APPLIED TO THE

CULTIVATION

OF

THE CUCUMBER,

IN THE

WINTER SEASON:

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

A CHAPTER ON MELONS:

By THOMAS MOORE,

MEMBER OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

SECOND EDITION,

WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING REMARKS ON HEATING AERATING, AND COVERING FORCING HOUSES; ON TRANSPLANTING, AND THE USE OF TURF POTS; ON WATERING; ON ATMOS- PHERIC HUMIDITY, &c., &c.

LONDON: RICHARD GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS, 5 PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCXLVII.

LONDON: PRINTED BY DAVID M. AIED JAMES ST., COVENT GARDEN.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

This little treatise is intended as an inducement to young Gardeners especially, to seek for the reasons on which the operations of their daily practice are founded, and by which they are regulated. This announcement is here made, in order to prevent any reader from supposing that the author has unduly estimated the opinions of those who have benefited by a long course of application and experience. As, however, there can be no doubt that there is much to be learned, so is there but little question that there is also much to be unlearned, in the present state of the Science of Horticulture; and these pages are offered without hesitation, as a mite among the accumulating mass of available information on gardening subjects; and in the hope that some amongst those who are seeking to extend their knowledge, may at least be stimulated by their perusal, if they are not otherwise directly benefited.

The great truths which it is the object of this treatise to impress, are these: that the ultimate success of gardening operations does not depend on the performance of any part of them, at a particular time, or in a particular or even superior manner, but rather upon the supplying, in a natural manner, as far as possible, all the conditions which are necessary to the nutrition and perpetuation of plants; and, that it is within the open pathway of Science, and not the bye-ways of empiricism, that the finger-post of direction should be sought.

Royal Botanic Garden, Regent’s Park, March 2nd, 1844.

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

In the present edition, it has been thought best to preserve the original text exactly as it appeared in the first edition. The new matter will be found in the Appendix.

The author may take this opportunity of returning his thanks to those who have noticed and commended the former edition, and of expressing a hope that the present will receive an equal share of favour.

Camden Town, Aug. 1, 1847.

CONTENTS.

TREATISE.

Chap. I.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

The Cucumber, Cucumis sativa, is supposed to be a native of the East Indies; but like many other of our culinary plants, the real stations which it naturally has occupied, are involved in obscurity: in habit it is a trailing herb, with thick fleshy stems, broadly palmate leaves, and yellow axillary monæcious flowers. In the natural arrangement of the vegetable kingdom, the genus of which it forms part, ranks in the first grand class, Vasculares, or those plants which are furnished with vessels, and woody fibre; in the sub-class Calycifloræ, or those in which the stamens are perigynous; and in the order Cucurbitaceæ, or that group, of which the genus Cucurbita, or Gourd family is the type.

The affinities of this order, are chiefly with Loasaceæ, and Onagraceæ; with the former it agrees in its inferior unilocular fruit, having a parietal placentæ, and with the latter, in its definite perigynous stamens, single style, and exalbuminous seeds. It has also some affinity with Passifloraceæ, and Papayaceæ, in the nature of the fruit, and with Aristolochiaceæ, in its twining habit, and inferior ovarium. M. Auguste St. Hiliare, also regards it as being related to Campanulaceæ, in the perigynous insertion of the stamens, the single style with several stigmas, the inferior ovarium, and in the quinary division of the floral envelope, in connection with the ternary division of the fruit.