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| The strange looking wild cucumber. |
"I can't bear a tattery World,"
Cucumber complained with a frown,
Then her vine o'er the tin cans she whirled
And draped the old fence in green gown.
"I can't bear an old-timey seed-case,"
Cucumber exclaimed in high mirth.
"My babes' wraps are satin and reed-lace,
But their cradles shock the Old Earth."
Most of the children in the Spanish Californian days lived on big ranches. They had very few store-bought toys. They had plenty of playthings they found right on the ranch.
When children wanted to play Marbles, they took out their bags of Wild Cucumber seeds and played the old-fashioned game of marbles using these instead!
Have you seen the wild cucumber climbing over fences and bushes and rocks. What does it do that for? Just because it loves the sunshine. If it lay along the ground, the other plants would grow higher than it and would shut it off from the sun's rays.
The Wild Cucumber will not stand for that. It must have direct sunshine. It takes some young branches and thrusts them out straight. When they touch a bush or a fence rail, they begin to curl around so as to get a better hold.
These curled little branches of plants we call tendrils. When Mrs. Wild Cucumber gets one set of tendrils around a support, it holds her steady. Then she can grow up higher and out farther. She soon fastens a new set of tendrils around something else strong. She grows up still higher and out still farther. Sometimes, the vine is thirty feet long. How long is that? Try measuring it. Is your classroom that long?
By growing so far, Wild Cucumber often covers up old heaps of trash that some careless man has thrown out. Of course, no boy in school would do such an untidy thing. He is learning to be too good an American to spoil the looks of the Country.
Wild Cucumber can do all this beauty work because she can hold herself steady by those little curled branches. If you think the tendrils are as weak as they look, just try to pull a Wild Cucumber loose. You need to be strong yourself, do you not? That shows what living in the sunshine will do for a creature. If Wild Cucumber had not loved sunshine, what would have happened ? She would be flat on the ground and every animal would walk upon her.
Besides her tendrils, Mrs. Wild Cucumber has other surprises for you children. You have seen her creamy flowers spread along a little branch held up to the sun. Now after studying so many other flowers, you no doubt think that you know all about these small blossoms.
They are grouped together and held up high so that they will catch the eye of the passing bug.
Did you ever see any Bugs on Wild Cucumber's flowers? You have not learned all about her flowers yet. They hold a secret. We all love a secret, do we not? Let's look closer.
Some corollas have five petals and some have seven. But on the cucumber plant there is more for you to see.
Look down the vine. See that little flower sitting all alone, cuddled close to the stem. Does it look just like the flowers clustered above?
Look at them again. Closely. Pick out the different parts. You can find the sepals. And the petals. And the stamens, with lots and lots of pollen; but‚ there is no pistil and no stigma to catch the pollen. How is Mrs. Wild Cucumber going to make her seed? Poor Plant! Poor Plant!
Do not worry about Mrs. Wild Cucumber's seed-making. She knows what she is doing.
Look again at that lonely little flower further down on the stem. You will see below the white petals a little bur and above a sticky knob of a stigma. This stigma is just waiting for pollen from the many flowers above to fall upon it. Then, it will start seed-making.
Mrs. Wild Cucumber does not seem to care for the aid of insects. She makes so much pollen so that the wind can carry it to the little stigma waiting below. If the wind wastes some of it, there will still be plenty to reach the stigma and make seeds. Mrs. Wild Cucumber has learned that if one flower attends to one branch of the seed making and another flower attends to the other branch, she will get better seeds.
What a wonderful seed-case she makes! Do you think there is much chance of her seeds being harmed? How large and round it is! Prickles all over it! If you touch it, it will hurt your hand.
Well, just think how much worse they must have hurt the old cow's tongue! That is why Mrs. Wild Cucumber put the prickles on.
Her leaves look tender. Any animal might choose them for breakfast. If it thought the seedcase was like an apple, it might make a bite at it. But one taste of those prickles is enough. No animal is foolish enough to try them a second time. The seed-case is let alone on the vine. In its cozy nest, the seeds grow bigger and bigger.
When the seeds are ripe, the seed-case splits open from the top. It curves the parts back like a Lily curves her petals. It then looks like a lovely white waxen lily. Inside, it has a beautiful lace work which holds the seeds firmly and yet gives them plenty of room in which to grow.
The seeds grow to be beautiful, just as the vine does and the seed-case does. Wild Cucumber seems to be a great lover of beauty. She improves everything she touches. Her seeds are large and handsome, but that does not seem to satisfy her. She gives them an extra beautiful polish, as if she means them for marble games.
However, we know that Wild Cucumber has no thought of children's games when she is polishing up her seeds. She makes these beautiful seeds to start a new strong root. Did your Father ever dig up a Wild Cucumber root? Were you not surprised at what he found? The vine and the leaves look so delicate that one would expect a small root. But not with Mrs. Wild Cucumber. Her course of life seems to be one surprise after another. She wants to grow out early in the year. She has to have a big store house of food. She needs this not only for her early start, but to give her strength enough to grow out so far. No living thing can do good work without good food.
So she makes an unusually large root. Often, she is called a Big Root. Again, some people call her ''Man-in-the-Ground,'' because her root is sometimes as large as a man's body.
This root starts growing early in the year, whether there has been any rain or not. Wild Cucumber's first green leaves come up when many of the other early flowers are still sleeping. She proves
When children wanted to play Marbles, they took out their bags of Wild Cucumber seeds and played the old-fashioned game of marbles using these instead!
Have you seen the wild cucumber climbing over fences and bushes and rocks. What does it do that for? Just because it loves the sunshine. If it lay along the ground, the other plants would grow higher than it and would shut it off from the sun's rays.
The Wild Cucumber will not stand for that. It must have direct sunshine. It takes some young branches and thrusts them out straight. When they touch a bush or a fence rail, they begin to curl around so as to get a better hold.
These curled little branches of plants we call tendrils. When Mrs. Wild Cucumber gets one set of tendrils around a support, it holds her steady. Then she can grow up higher and out farther. She soon fastens a new set of tendrils around something else strong. She grows up still higher and out still farther. Sometimes, the vine is thirty feet long. How long is that? Try measuring it. Is your classroom that long?
By growing so far, Wild Cucumber often covers up old heaps of trash that some careless man has thrown out. Of course, no boy in school would do such an untidy thing. He is learning to be too good an American to spoil the looks of the Country.
Wild Cucumber can do all this beauty work because she can hold herself steady by those little curled branches. If you think the tendrils are as weak as they look, just try to pull a Wild Cucumber loose. You need to be strong yourself, do you not? That shows what living in the sunshine will do for a creature. If Wild Cucumber had not loved sunshine, what would have happened ? She would be flat on the ground and every animal would walk upon her.
Besides her tendrils, Mrs. Wild Cucumber has other surprises for you children. You have seen her creamy flowers spread along a little branch held up to the sun. Now after studying so many other flowers, you no doubt think that you know all about these small blossoms.
They are grouped together and held up high so that they will catch the eye of the passing bug.
Did you ever see any Bugs on Wild Cucumber's flowers? You have not learned all about her flowers yet. They hold a secret. We all love a secret, do we not? Let's look closer.
Some corollas have five petals and some have seven. But on the cucumber plant there is more for you to see.
Look down the vine. See that little flower sitting all alone, cuddled close to the stem. Does it look just like the flowers clustered above?
Look at them again. Closely. Pick out the different parts. You can find the sepals. And the petals. And the stamens, with lots and lots of pollen; but‚ there is no pistil and no stigma to catch the pollen. How is Mrs. Wild Cucumber going to make her seed? Poor Plant! Poor Plant!
Do not worry about Mrs. Wild Cucumber's seed-making. She knows what she is doing.
Look again at that lonely little flower further down on the stem. You will see below the white petals a little bur and above a sticky knob of a stigma. This stigma is just waiting for pollen from the many flowers above to fall upon it. Then, it will start seed-making.
Mrs. Wild Cucumber does not seem to care for the aid of insects. She makes so much pollen so that the wind can carry it to the little stigma waiting below. If the wind wastes some of it, there will still be plenty to reach the stigma and make seeds. Mrs. Wild Cucumber has learned that if one flower attends to one branch of the seed making and another flower attends to the other branch, she will get better seeds.
What a wonderful seed-case she makes! Do you think there is much chance of her seeds being harmed? How large and round it is! Prickles all over it! If you touch it, it will hurt your hand.
Well, just think how much worse they must have hurt the old cow's tongue! That is why Mrs. Wild Cucumber put the prickles on.
Her leaves look tender. Any animal might choose them for breakfast. If it thought the seedcase was like an apple, it might make a bite at it. But one taste of those prickles is enough. No animal is foolish enough to try them a second time. The seed-case is let alone on the vine. In its cozy nest, the seeds grow bigger and bigger.
When the seeds are ripe, the seed-case splits open from the top. It curves the parts back like a Lily curves her petals. It then looks like a lovely white waxen lily. Inside, it has a beautiful lace work which holds the seeds firmly and yet gives them plenty of room in which to grow.
The seeds grow to be beautiful, just as the vine does and the seed-case does. Wild Cucumber seems to be a great lover of beauty. She improves everything she touches. Her seeds are large and handsome, but that does not seem to satisfy her. She gives them an extra beautiful polish, as if she means them for marble games.
However, we know that Wild Cucumber has no thought of children's games when she is polishing up her seeds. She makes these beautiful seeds to start a new strong root. Did your Father ever dig up a Wild Cucumber root? Were you not surprised at what he found? The vine and the leaves look so delicate that one would expect a small root. But not with Mrs. Wild Cucumber. Her course of life seems to be one surprise after another. She wants to grow out early in the year. She has to have a big store house of food. She needs this not only for her early start, but to give her strength enough to grow out so far. No living thing can do good work without good food.
So she makes an unusually large root. Often, she is called a Big Root. Again, some people call her ''Man-in-the-Ground,'' because her root is sometimes as large as a man's body.
This root starts growing early in the year, whether there has been any rain or not. Wild Cucumber's first green leaves come up when many of the other early flowers are still sleeping. She proves
Early to bed,
Early to rise,
Makes a plant healthy,
Wealthy and wise
Tell us yourself how she is ''wealthy and wise.''
She goes steadily about her life work. Every part that she uses in this life work she makes beautiful. That is a fine thing for a child to do, as well as for a plant.
Do steady work. Be so happy doing it that the World is more beautiful for your being in it!
Wild Cucumber - A vining native annual in the
cucumber or gourd family by What Plant is that, Paul?
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