Snake or Serpent Cucumber

Cucumis flexuosus.

Though generally considered as a species of cucumber, this plant should properly be classed with the melons. In its manner of growth, foliage, flowering, and in the odor and taste of the ripened fruit, it strongly resembles the musk-melon. The fruit is slender and flexuous; frequently measures more than three feet in length; and is often gracefully coiled or folded in a serpent-like form. The skin is green; the flesh, while the fruit is forming, is greenish-white,—at maturity, yellow; the seeds are yellowish-white, oval, flattened, often twisted or contorted like those of some varieties of melons, and retain their vitality five years.

Planting and Cultivation.—The seeds should be planted in May, in hills six feet apart. Cover half an inch deep, and allow three plants to a hill.

Use.—The fruit is sometimes pickled in the manner of the Common Cucumber, but is seldom served at table sliced in its crude state. It is generally cultivated on account of its serpent-like form, rather than for its value as an esculent.

Well-grown specimens are quite attractive; and, as curious vegetable productions, contribute to the interest and variety of horticultural exhibitions.