Luffa. LXIV. CUCURBITACEE (HOOKER). 531 
3. L. echinata, Roxb. j Fl. Ind. iii. 716. Dicecious. Stem 5-angled, 
slightly hairy, Leaves 2-4 in. broad, orbicular-reniform, 5—7-lobed 
to about the middle, basal sinus very broad and open, slightly pubes- 
cent and scabrid, lobes broad, obtuse, with shallow teeth or crena- 
tures ; petioles rather slender, angled Tendrils 2-fid. Male peduncles 
longer than the leaves, few-flowered ; bracteoles minute; buds downy. 
Calyx-lobes 4 in. long. Corolla lin. in diameter; yellow.—Female fl. : 
1-3 together: peduncle short, stout. Ovary ovoid, densely hispid. 
Fruit 7-1 in. long, ovoid or subglobose, terminated by the stout, 
woody, columnar style ; apex conical, grooved, naked, the rest densely 
covered with scabrid, spreading, soft, ciliate spines, that harden when 
dry 5 Interior full of spongy fibrous tissue. Seeds black, numerous, 
ovoid, compressed, margins rounded, testa granulate, crustaceous.— 
Momordica echinocarpa, Fenzl in Kotschy’s Pl. Nub. No. 122. 
Nile Land. Nubia, Kotschy! Nile, lat. 16°, N. Grant ! White Nile, Petherick. 
Tfind no difference between the Indian and African plants. Roxburgh describes the 
*wers as white, which they are not in Indian specimens, and does not allude to the 
Spreading cilia on the spines of the fruit; his LZ. Bindall is the same plant with the 
spines described as ciliate.* The peduncle of the female flower varies much in length. 
8. ACANTHOSICYOS, Welw. ; Benth. et Hook. f. 
Gen. Plant. i. 824. 
Dicecious ? Male fl.: Solitary or fascicled. Calyx-tube turbinate ; 
obes 5, Short, unequal, very coriaceous with horny tips. Petals 5, 
very coriaceous, erooved. Filaments short, free, inserted on the 
mouth of the calyx ; anthers exserted, one 1-celled, two 2-celled ; cells 
exuous, bordering the dilated connective. Rudiment of ovary 0. 
emale #.: Not seen. Fruit globose, hard. Seeds many, oblong, 
tumid ; testa thick, hard.—An erect, furze-like, spinous shrub, branched 
°m the base. Leaves seen in young plants only, spathulate, in the 
angles between the geminate spines. Tendrils 0. Flowers yellow. 
5 1. A, horrida, Welw. in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvii. 81. Adult plant 
ie ft. or occasionally 5 ft. or taller, intricately divaricately branched, 
eeply sulcate. Leaves squamiform, ovate, crustaceous, scarcely 1 line 
)e, with a pair of straight, subulate, } in. spines from each side at 
te base. Flowering branches 2—5 in. long, suberect, tomentose ; 
eWers subsessile, solitary, or fascicled between geminate spines. 
“alyX tomentose, lobes usually unequal. Petals subconnate below, 
roadly Ovate, smooth and striate within. Fruit as large or larger 
0 an orange, globose, edible, with a smooth or distantly verrucose 
"nd 1 line thick. ' : 
Lower Guinea. Mossamedes, Dr. Welwitsch. Also in Namaqualand and the 
arnt from Whalfish Bay, Anderson, Baines and Chapman. 
scription of Species taken from Dr. Welwitsch’s Memoir, 
* ; : 
tai The third volume of Roxburzh’s Flora Indica was posthumously published, and the 
differ, Plant 18 repeatedly named and described twice, from the intercalation of mss. of 
*at periods by the editor. 9 
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