Cucumber

Bitter cucumber (Bot.), the Citrullus or Cucumis Colocynthis. See Colocynth. -- Cucumber beetle. (Zoöl.) (a) A small, black flea- beetle (Crepidodera cucumeris), which destroys the leaves of cucumber, squash, and melon vines. (b) The squash beetle. -- Cucumber tree. (a) A large ornamental or shade tree of the genus Magnolia (M. acuminata), so called from a slight resemblance of its young fruit to a small cucumber. (b) An East Indian plant (Averrhoa Bilimbi) which produces the fruit known as bilimbi. -- Jamaica cucumber, Jerusalem cucumber, the prickly-fruited gherkin (Cucumis Anguria). -- Snake cucumber, a species (Cucumis flexuosus) remarkable for its long, curiously-shaped fruit. -- Squirting cucumber, a plant (Ecbalium Elaterium) whose small oval fruit separates from the footstalk when ripe and expels its seeds and juice with considerable force through the opening thus made. See Elaterium. -- Star cucumber, a climbing weed (Sicyos angulatus) with prickly fruit.