Short answers, pulled from the story.
Roman Emperor Tiberius used a device known as lapis specularis, a sheet of translucent mica, to trap heat and light for growing cucumbers. Roman engineers constructed special greenhouses called specularia glazed with oiled cloth to protect the vines from harsh winter air.
English physicians and health writers in the 17th century claimed that eating raw cucumbers caused summer diseases and should be strictly forbidden to children. The diarist John Evelyn wrote in 1699 that it was thought to be little better than poison, and Samuel Pepys recorded a death from eating cowcumbers on the 22nd of August 1663.
Scientists announced they had sequenced the entire genome of the cucumber plant in 2009. This breakthrough provided a high-resolution landscape of meiotic DNA double strand-breaks and genetic crossovers, revealing how the plant reproduces and evolves.
Cucumbers possess a phytochemical known as cucurbitacin C which causes a bitter taste to deter natural foraging by herbivores such as insects, nematodes, and wildlife. The plant produces this chemical in its leaves, cotyledons, pedicel, carpopodium, and fruit to protect itself from environmental stresses and predators.
The cucumber plant originated in Asia, extending from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, China, and Northern Thailand. The cultivated cucumbers were domesticated in India from wild Cucumis sativus var. hardwickii, where a great many varieties have been observed.
The cucumber fruit consists of 95% water, making it one of the most hydrating vegetables available to humans. In a reference amount, raw cucumber provides only 16 calories of food energy, with 4% carbohydrates and 1% protein, containing negligible fat.