

v.- 



Momordica 



Lxv. cucuEBiTACEiE. (C. B. Clarke.) 



619 



^e 2-fid one 3-fid so each with one anther-cell ; filaments inserted near the top 

 of the calyx-tnbe, anthers completely exsert. Female pedmicle f-2 in., 1-flowered, 

 «bracteate. Fruit | by scarcely J in. Seeds ^J in., few, shortly obovoid, smooth, 





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10. CVCUMZS, Linn. 



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Climbing herbs, hispid or scahroiis ; tendrils simple. Leaves petioled, pal- 

 mately^ 3-7-lobed or 5-angled or entire, dentate or seiTate. Flowers yellow, 

 monoecious, males clustered in the axils, females solitary, all shortly pedimcled. 

 Male : calyx-tube top-shaped or campanulate, lobes 6. Stamens 3 ; anthers 

 free, one 1-celled, two 2-celled, cells conduplicate or much flexuose, connective 

 produced in a crest. Female : calyx and corolla as in the male ; ovary ovoid, 

 style short, with three obtuse stigmas ; ovules very many, horizontal ; placentas 

 \^^^ fleshy, indehiscent, large or small, spherical or elongate, smooth or 

 taberculate. Seeds very many, oblong, compressed, mostly smooth. — Distmb. 

 fepecies 25, of which half are African, a few in the tropical regions of Asia, 

 Australia and America, and several widely cultivated of doubtful origin, 



1. C.^ trigronus, Eoxh, Fl. Ind, ii. 722; leaves and petioles scabrid not 

 softly hairy, petioles :^f in., flowers small, ovary hairy sometimes densely, 

 white woolly or silky, fruit about 1^ in. ultimately glabrous ellipsoid or ob- 

 ovoid round or obscurely trigonous. W. ^ A, Prodr. 342 ; Wiffht Ic. t 497 ; 

 ^Vht III. t 105; £otss. FL Orient, ii. 758-, Dalz. ^^ Gibs. Boinh. FL 103; 

 ^ud. in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 4, xi. 30. 0. turbinatus, Roxb. FL Ind. iii. 723 ; 

 ^' 9 A. Prodr. iii. 842 ; Miq. FL Ind. Bat. i. pt. i. 671. 0. maderaspatanus, 

 -^oxb. Lc. 723; WaU. Cat. 6734 0. Melo var. agrestis, iVhW. Lc. 73. 0. 

 Pubescens, WaU. Cat. 6729 ,W.8fA. Pt^odr. 342 ; Royle III t. 47 ; Wight Ic. 

 ^■496; Bah. ^ Gibs. Bmnh. FL 103, perhaps not of Willd, and others. C. 

 ^eudo-colocynthis, Royle IlL t. 47. 0. eriocarpus, Boiss. Diagn. ii. 69. 

 Bryonia callosa, Se^^b. Bottler ; WalL Cat. 6710. 



■ -> Throughout iNDLi. — Distrib. Malaya, North Australia, Afghanistan, Persia. 



Soot perennial, by which character alone it can be distinguished from C. Melo 

 Recording to Naudin, but the examples seen and collected in India are almost inva- 

 ?aWy less than one year old. "* ' ' ' ^ '' ' .m_ _!.__. 



Leav 



Stem in the typical examples scabrid ; tendrils short. 



L'," ' I 



rrj^ 1-2 in. diam., orbicular subpentangular, in the typical plant deeply palmate- 

 ^Ded, lobes very scabrid and often narrow ; in the more flaccid C. puhescens the hairs 

 ^ore scattered, the leaves entire, 5-angled 5-lobed ; petiole ^-1^ in. Peduncles ot 

 ?^es and females J-1 in. Fruit sometimes with a few scattered hairs, often with 



" Stripes. — The plants marked by Indian botanists as C. pubescens are reduced to 

 \klV^^^^^^ by Naudin in the Kew Herbarium. Kurz (in Journ. As. Soc. 1877, pt. ii. 



103) 



"f ; separates C. trigo7i'us with solitary peduncles from C. pubescens with clustered 

 ^uncles and makes the latter a variety of C. Melo, Linn. C. pubescens of Thwaites 



^m. (C.p. 3534J jj^g remarkably acute lobes to the leaves and resembles C. 

 ^f^^dwickii, but there is no note of the fruit. 



■ ■ , 



g^-. C- Prophetarum, Linn. ; DC. Prodr. iii. 301 ; leaves and petioles 

 f^r^^ liot softly downy, flowers small, petals i in., ovary very tuT)ercuIate, 

 ^t about 1 in. more or "less tuberculate ellipsoid. WalL Cat. 6733 ; W. ^ A. 

 ^^^r. iii. 342 : Bois^ FL Oripnt. ii, 758 : Naud. in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 4, xi. 14. 



^ m.. 



~F^^b; Stocks. — Distrib. Boloochistan, Arabia, Tropical Africa to Guinea. 

 lol)^ scabrid; tendrils short. Leaves 1-1 J in., reniform, subtriangular, much 

 ^; petiole A-l in. Female peduncle less than A in., stout. Fniit green, with 

 ^% vertical flfcrinAQ . . 



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