286 CUCURBITACE.E. 



1. P. Hookeri, Endl. Dioecious ; leaves oblong or lanceolate, mncronate-bluntish, 

 quite entire, tapering into the petiole, shining above, lurid- villous or glabrate beneath ; aments 

 elongated with distant flower-pairs: $ axillary, branched, cernuous, $ erect, terminal 

 on small branchlets ; bracts connate at the base, exceeding the flower ; berry globose. — 

 Hook. Ic. t. 333.— Garrya Fadyenii, Hook. /—Leaves black m drying, 4"-li"loog, U"-6"' 

 broad : veins in a lax network, prominulous above ; aments hoary-villous, 1 "-2" long, or at 

 length longer in $ ; $ calyx globose, 1^'" diam. ; berry 3"' diam., crowned with the subu- 

 late, spreading stigmas. — Hab. Jamaica !, Macf., Hartw., Pd., M'Nab, March, in mountain 

 woods, common in the Blue Mountains, Port Royal; [Sierra Maestra in Cuba I]. 



LXXVII. CUCURBITACE^]. 



Flowers usually unisexual. Stamens 5, or less by abortion, inserted into the calyx or the 

 sympetalous corolla, often triadelphous : anthers large, extrorse (or marginal), usually flexuose. 

 Pistil paracarpous .• ovary inferior, mostly 3-celled by the involute placentas : placentas 3, 

 usually many-ovulate : stigmas distinct. Fruit pulpy. Seeds exalbuminous. — Succulent, 

 herbaceous vines, scandent by tendrils ; leaves palmatinerved, exstipulate. 



Many Cucurbitacece are cultivated, the mucilaginous berry being often eatable. Thns, in 

 the West Indies, the Musk Melon {Cucumis Melo), the Cucumber (C. sativus), the Water 

 Melon (Citrullus vulgaris), the Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris), the Pumpkin or White 

 Gourd {Cucurbita Pepo, forms of which are the Squash and the Succade Gourd), the Pompion 

 (C. maxima), the Torchon {Luffa, sp. sec. Cr.), the East Indian Okra {Luffa acutafigula) , the 

 Cerasee {Momordica Balsamina and Charantia), the Chocho {Sechium edule), the Viper-snake 

 Gourd {Trichosanthes colubrina). Several species are used in medicine for a drastic prin- 

 ciple, peculiar to their sap, e.g. the Sequa-seed, or Cocoon antidote {Feuillea cordifolia). 

 Shells of the Towel Gourd, or Strainer Vine {Luffa acutanguld), the Bottle Gourd, and 

 others, are used for domestic purposes. 



Tribe I. CTJCTJRBLTEJ5. — Tendrils juxtapetiolar (i.e. transformed from a single 



abortive leaf.) 



1. SECHIUM, P. Br. 



Corolla rotate : tube bearing 10 nectariferous glands. Stamens monadelphous : anthers 

 distiuct : cells bent upwards and downwards. Ovary unilocular : ovule single, pendulous. 

 Fruit large, indehiscent. — Flowers monoecious. 



1. S. edule, Sw. Leaves cordate- 5 -angular, pointed; tendrils 3 (-5 -fid) ; $ racemes 

 axillary, with a single ? flower from the same axil ; fruit obovate-oblong, glabrous, usually 

 muricate, with 5 longitudinal furrows. — Jacq. Amer. Pict. t. 245. — Chayota, Jacq. Sicyos, 

 Jacq. — Root large, fleshy ; stem smooth ; leaves scabrous ; flowers yellow, <? 3'", ? 5" -6'" 

 diam. ; fruit about 4" long : " seed half-exserted during germination." — Hab. Jamaica !, 

 Hist., in thickets ; [Cuba ; cultivated in all the West Indian islands]. 



2. CIONANDRA, Gr. 



<? : Calyx 5 -dentate. Corolla rotate. Stamens triadelphous : anthers all connate in a 

 cylindrical column : cells bent upwards and downwards. Ovary 3-celled, constricted below 

 the calyx -limb: cells 2 -ovulate. Berry indehiscent. — Flowers monoecious, in axillary ra- 

 cemes or single. 



This genus, comprising, besides Bryonia glandulosa, Poepp. Endl. (N. Gen. t. 175), and 

 several aperies roughly figured in the Fl. Flumiuensis (10. t. 85, 87, 88, 89), is distinguished 

 from Bryonia by its synantherous male flowers, and approaches Cephalandra, which is 

 said to have polyspermous fruits. Momordica macropoda, Poepp. Endl. (1. c. t. 173), is also 

 closely allied in habit, but will prove a distinct genus, presenting filaments cohering below 

 the top, and a polyspermous, 3-valved fruit. 



2. C. racemosa, Gr. Leaves pnberulous, roundish, protracted at the base, mucronate, 

 inferior 3(-5)-lobed to the middle, superior sinuate-subcntire ; tendrils 2-3-fid ; flowers 



