Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/127

Rh  may be reduced to four: this crop will begin to produce fruit in July.

A very ingenious method (we learn from a Foreign Journal) of propagating cucumbers for several crops in succession, without sowing them, has beeen lately discovered by Mr., of Staineshead, Sussex. As soon as there appear several flower-buds on a plant, he bends the second or third joint of a branch below the blossom, fastens it firmly into the ground, and cuts off the capillary point of the plant. The new vegetable speedily takes root, when he separates it from the parent stock. Thus he proceeds with the most vigorous ot his plants; and as each root has to supply only a few fruits with nourishment, he saves both room, labour, and time, while this process enables him to procure a constant succession of cucumbers for eight, twelve, and more months, from one sort, which is not so liable to degenerate, as if were raised from a variety of seeds.

Cucumbers are a salubrious, cooling fruit, and may be safely allowed to consumptive patients; as they sweeten acrid humours, and at the same time are gently laxative; but, being in a considerable degree acescent, and sometimes attended with flatulency and diarrhœa, such effects may be prevented, by eating them in great moderation; or with the addition of vinegar and pepper, which counteract their natural coldness. If properly pickled (without colouring them with that poisonous metal, copper; or rendering them too acrid with stimulant spices), they gre an excellent antiseptic; yet we consider them highly improper, either for children or wet-nurses.

2. The Colocynthis,, or Bitter Apple, which grows in Syria, and also in the island of Crete. It produces a yellow fruit, of the size of an orange, and resembling a gourd, the shell or outside of which contains a very light, while, spongy pulp, interspersed with flattish seeds. This pulp, when dried and pulverized, is one of the most violent purgatives: and though it is frequently employed for that purpose, we cannot but caution the reader against its use, which is sometimes attended with bloody stools, colics, convulsions, and ulcers in the bowels. As we are possessed of numerous native plants of similar and much milder virtues, there appears to be no necessity for employing this exotic.  : See.  CUDWEED, or Gnaphalium, L. a genus of plants, comprising 72 species, of which the following are the principal:

1. The Germanicum, or Common Cudweed, an annual indigenous plant, winch grows in barren meadows, pastures, and road-sides; and produces yellowish flowers, which blow in the month of July or August.—This plant is desiccative, and astringent; it is said to be of great service in dysenteries and hemorrhages of every kind. A decoction of it in small beer, is frequently given by the lower class of people for quinsies, in the cure of which complaint it has been found very efficacious.

2. The Dioicum, or Mountain Cudweed, or Catsfoot, grows on dry mountainous pastures in the North of England, Wales, and Cornwall; also on the Newmarket, Can-