Editing Cucumber (section)

== Cultivation history ==
Cultivated for at least 3,000 years, the cultivated cucumbers ''"Cucumis sativus"'' were domesticated in [[India]] from wild "''C. sativus var. hardwickii''".<ref name="nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com"/><ref name="Plant Breeding Reviews"/><ref name="tandfonline.com"/> where a great many varieties have been observed, along with its closest living relative, ''[[Cucumis hystrix]]''.<ref>[[Asian News International]]. 21 July 2010. "[http://newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/170033 Cucumber, melon's common ancestor originated in Asia]." ''NewsTrack India.'' Retrieved on 4 June 2020.</ref> The three main cultivar groups of cucumber are Eurasian cucumbers (slicing cucumbers eaten raw and immature), East Asian cucumbers (pickling cucumbers), and Xishuangbanna cucumbers. Based on demographic modelling, the East Asian C. sativus cultivars diverged from the Indian cultivars about 2,500 years ago.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chomicki |first1=Guillaume |last2=Schaefer |first2=Hanno |last3=Renner |first3=Susanne S. |title=Origin and domestication of Cucurbitaceae crops: insights from phylogenies, genomics and archaeology |journal=New Phytologist |date=June 2020 |volume=226 |issue=5 |pages=1240–1255 |doi=10.1111/nph.16015 |language=en |issn=0028-646X|doi-access=free |pmid=31230355 |bibcode=2020NewPh.226.1240C }}</ref> It was probably introduced to Europe by the [[Agriculture in ancient Greece|Greeks]] or [[Agriculture in ancient Rome|Romans]]. Records of cucumber cultivation appear in [[France]] in the 9th century, [[Agriculture in England|England]] in the 14th century, and in North America by the mid-16th century.<ref name="Encyclopedia Britannica" /><ref name="Renner 2007">{{cite journal|last1=Renner|first1=SS|last2=Schaefer|first2=H|last3=Kocyan|first3=A|year=2007|title=Phylogenetics of ''Cucumis'' (Cucurbitaceae): Cucumber (''C. sativus'') belongs in an Asian/Australian clade far from melon (''C. melo'')|journal=BMC Evolutionary Biology|volume=7|issue=1 |page=58|doi=10.1186/1471-2148-7-58|pmc=3225884|pmid=17425784 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2007BMCEE...7...58R }}
</ref><ref name="Doijode">Doijode, S. D. 2001. ''Seed storage of horticultural crops''. [[Haworth Press]]. {{ISBN|1-56022-901-2}}. p. 281.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.21273/HORTSCI.41.3.571|title=Taxonomic Relationships of A Rare ''Cucumis'' Species (''C. hystrix'' Chakr.) and Its Interspecific Hybrid with Cucumber|year=2006|last1=Zhuang|first1=Fei-Yun|last2=Chen|first2=Jin-Feng|last3=Staub|first3=Jack E.|last4=Qian|first4=Chun-Tao|journal=HortScience|volume=41|issue=3|pages=571–574|doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Roman Empire ===
According to [[Pliny the Elder]], the Emperor [[Tiberius]] had the cucumber on his table daily during summer and winter. In order to have it available for his table every day of the year, the Romans reportedly used artificial growing methods (similar to the [[Greenhouse|greenhouse system]]) using ''mirrorstone'', Pliny's ''lapis specularis'', believed to have been sheet [[mica]]:<ref name="AncientInventions">{{cite book|author1=James, Peter J. |author2=Thorpe, Nick |author3=Thorpe, I. J. |title=Ancient Inventions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VmJLd3sSYecC|year=1995|publisher=Ballantine Books|isbn=978-0-345-40102-1|chapter=Ch. 12, Sport and Leusure: Roman Gardening Technology|page=563}}</ref><ref>[[Pliny the Elder]]. [77–79 AD] 1855. "[http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=LatinAugust2012&getid=1&query=Plin.%20Nat.%2019.23 Vegetables of a Cartilaginous Nature—Cucumbers. Pepones] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605044058/http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=LatinAugust2012&getid=1&query=Plin.%20Nat.%2019.23 |date=5 June 2020 }}." Ch. 23 in ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|The Natural History]]'' XIX, translated by [[John Bostock (physician)|J. Bostock]] and [[Henry Thomas Riley|H. T. Riley]]. London: [[Taylor & Francis]]. – via ''Perseus under PhiloLogic'', also [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D19%3Achapter%3D23 available] via Perseus Project.</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=Indeed, he was never without it; for he had raised beds made in frames upon wheels, by means of which the cucumbers were moved and exposed to the full heat of the sun; while, in winter, they were withdrawn, and placed under the protection of frames glazed with mirrorstone.|author=Pliny the Elder|title=''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' XIX.xxiii|source="Vegetables of a Cartilaginous Nature—Cucumbers. Pepones"}}

Reportedly, they were also cultivated in ''specularia'', cucumber houses glazed with oiled cloth.<ref name="AncientInventions" /> Pliny describes the Italian fruit as very small, probably like a [[gherkin]]. He also describes the preparation of a medication known as ''elaterium''. However, some scholars{{who|date=February 2013}} believe that he was instead referring to ''[[Ecballium elaterium]]'', known in pre-[[Linnean nomenclature|Linnean]] times as ''Cucumis silvestris'' or ''Cucumis asininus'' ('wild cucumber' or 'donkey cucumber'), a species different from the common cucumber.<ref>[[Pliny the Elder]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' XX.[http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=LatinAugust2012&getid=1&query=Plin.%20Nat.%2020.3 iii] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605043843/http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=LatinAugust2012&getid=1&query=Plin.%20Nat.%2020.3 |date=5 June 2020 }}.</ref> Pliny also writes about several other varieties of cucumber, including the cultivated cucumber,<ref>[[Pliny the Elder]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' XX.[http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=LatinAugust2012&getid=1&query=Plin.%20Nat.%2020.4 iv] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605043845/http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=LatinAugust2012&getid=1&query=Plin.%20Nat.%2020.4 |date=5 June 2020 }}–[http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=LatinAugust2012&getid=1&query=Plin.%20Nat.%2020.5 v] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605043846/http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=LatinAugust2012&getid=1&query=Plin.%20Nat.%2020.5 |date=5 June 2020 }}.</ref> and remedies from the different types (9 from the cultivated; 5 from the "anguine;" and 26 from the "wild").

=== Middle Ages ===
[[Charlemagne]] had cucumbers grown in his gardens in the 8th/9th century. They were reportedly introduced into England in the early 14th century, lost, then reintroduced approximately 250 years later. The [[Spaniards]] (through the [[Italian people|Italian]] [[Christopher Columbus]]) brought cucumbers to [[Haiti]] in 1494. In 1535, [[Jacques Cartier]], a French explorer, found "very great cucumbers" grown on the site of what is now [[Montreal]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~bcohen/cucumbers/history.html|title=''A Brief History of Cucumbers'', From Producing Vegetable Crops by Swiader et al; and A History of Horticulture in America to 1860 by U.P. Hedrick.| website = B's Cucumber Pages|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001163816/http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~bcohen/cucumbers/history.html |archive-date=1 October 2007 }}</ref>

=== Early-modern age ===
[[File:Trans-2,cis-6-Nonadienal.png|thumb|class=skin-invert-image|[[Trans,cis-2,6-Nonadienal]], or ''cucumber aldehyde'', is a component of the distinctive aroma of cucumbers.|alt=trans,cis-2,6-Nonadienal, or cucumber aldehyde|250px]]
Throughout the 16th century, European trappers, traders, [[bison]] hunters, and explorers bartered for the products of American Indian [[agriculture]]. The tribes of the [[Great Plains]] and the [[Rocky Mountains]] learned from the Spanish how to grow European crops. The farmers on the Great Plains included the [[Mandan]] and [[Abenaki]]. They obtained cucumbers and [[watermelon]]s from the Spanish, and added them to the crops they were already growing, including several varieties of [[Maize|corn]] and [[bean]]s, [[pumpkin]]s, [[Squash (fruit)|squash]], and [[gourd]] plants.<ref>{{cite book|title=Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and why They Matter|pages=109|last=Buchanan|first=David|publisher=Chelsea Green Publishing|location=VT, USA|isbn=9781603584401|year=2012}}</ref> The [[Iroquois]] were also growing them when the first Europeans visited them.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kuhnlein |first1=H. V. |author-link=Harriet V. Kuhnlein |title=Traditional Plant Foods of Canadian Indigenous Peoples: Nutrition, Botany and Use |last2=Turner |first2=N. J. |publisher=Gordon and Breach |year=1996 |isbn=9782881244650 |location=Amsterdam, Netherlands |pages=159}}</ref>

In 1630, the Reverend [[Francis Higginson]] produced a book called ''New-Englands Plantation'' in which, describing a garden on Conant's Island in [[Boston Harbor]] known as ''The Governor's Garden'', he states:<ref>[[Francis Higginson|Higginson, Francis]]. [1630] 1906. ''[[iarchive:newenglandsplant00higgrich/|New-Englands Plantation]]''. Salem, MA: Essex Book and Print Club. {{OCLC|1049892552}}. [https://archive.org/details/newenglandsplant00higgrich/page/24/mode/2up?q=turnips p. 5].</ref><blockquote>The countrie aboundeth naturally with store of roots of great {{Sic|varietie}} and good to eat. Our turnips, parsnips, and carrots are here both bigger and sweeter than is ordinary to be found in England. Here are store of pompions, cowcumbers, and other things of that nature which I know not...</blockquote>In ''New England Prospect'' (1633, England), William Wood published observations he made in 1629 in America:<ref>Wood, William. (1634). "[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/47082/47082-h/47082-h.htm#Page_13 Of the Hearbes, Fruites, Woods, Waters and Mineralls]", pp. 13–18 in ''New England Prospect''. London.</ref><blockquote>{{Sic|The ground affords very good kitchin gardens, for Turneps, Parsnips, Carrots, Radishes, and Pompions, Muskmillons, Isquoter-squashes, coucumbars, Onyons, and whatever grows well in England grows as well there, many things being better and larger.}}</blockquote>

===Age of Enlightenment and later===

[[File:Lobster, Crab, and a Cucumber - 1891P32.jpg|thumb|''Lobster, Crab, and a Cucumber'' by [[William Henry Hunt (painter)|William Henry Hunt]] (watercolour, 1826 or 1827)]]

In the later 17th century, a prejudice developed against uncooked vegetables and fruits. A number of articles in contemporary health publications stated that uncooked plants brought on summer diseases and should be forbidden to children. The cucumber kept this reputation for an inordinate period of time, "fit only for consumption by cows," which some believe is why it gained the name, ''cowcumber''.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}

[[Samuel Pepys]] wrote in his diary on 22 August 1663:<ref>[http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1663/08/22/ Saturday 22 August 1663 (Pepys' Diary)]. Pepysdiary.com. Retrieved on 25 November 2012.</ref><blockquote>[T]his day Sir W. Batten tells me that Mr. Newburne is dead of eating cowcumbers, of which the other day I heard of another, I think.</blockquote>

John Evelyn in 1699 wrote that the cucumber, 'however dress'd, was thought fit to be thrown away, being accounted little better than poyson (poison)'.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evelyn |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CiXbAAAAMAAJ |title=Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets |date=1699 |publisher=Prospect Books |isbn=978-0-907325-12-3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Jan |title=Pickles: A Global History (Edible) |date=2018-07-15 |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=9781780239194}}</ref>

According to 18th-century British writer [[Samuel Johnson]], it was commonly said among English physicians that a cucumber "should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boswell |first1=James |title=The Life of Samuel Johnson: Including A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, Volumen 1 |date=1832 |publisher=Carter, Hendee and Company |page=423 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fKAEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA423 |access-date=29 March 2024}}</ref>

A copper [[etching]] made by Maddalena Bouchard between 1772 and 1793 shows this plant to have smaller, almost bean-shaped fruits, and small yellow flowers. The small form of the cucumber is figured in [[Herbal]]s of the 16th century, however stating that "[i]f hung in a tube while in blossom, the Cucumber will grow to a most surprising length."{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}