Cucumis. | LXIV. CUCURRITACEH (HOOKER). 547 
Leaves very variable, usually 3-5 in, long, narrow oblong or oblong- 
ovate or lanceolate, obtusely sinuate-lobed and denticulate, acute obtuse 
or retuse with 3 principal nerves, base rounded or cordate, hirsute with 
appressed sometimes almost silky hairs on both surfaces, more rarely 
cordate or palmately deeply 3—5-lobed; petioles stout. Tendrils 
slender. Male f.: Very variable in size, 4—1 in. diameter; peduncles 
slender, long or short, 1—5-towered, ebracteate; pedicels slender. 
Calyx villous, with long soft spreading hairs. Anthers ciliate, con- 
hective produced into a flat irregular ciliate appendage, not thickened 
atthe tip. Female #l.: Solitary. Ovary densely villous with soft 
spreading hairs. Staminodes minute. Fruit on a stout peduncle, sub- 
globose, 1} in. diameter, nearly smooth, with a few scattered hairs, 
mottled green and white? Seeds very small, } in. long, broadly ovoid, 
acute at one end, with a small depression in the disk. 
Lower Guinea. Angola, in sandy thickets, Dr. Welwitsch ! oe : 
mo Distr. Moramballa and between Tette and the coast, in light soil, Dr. 
1 A very distinct species, at once recognised by its colour and peculiar long subentire 
tee The flowers vary excessively in size, and the males are more paniculate in 
irk’s than in Angolan or Natal specimens. The anthers are more ciliate ip the An- 
80a specimens than in the Natal, and appendages longer and also ciliate. According 
to Sonder, the fruit is edible and acidulous. 
a2. C. longipes, Hook.f. Annual? Moneecious; peo pale 
peng flaccid, slightly scabrid. Stems slender, angled, scabrid with 
Short stiff aculei. Leaves 2-4 in. long, as in C._ficifolius, cut deeply 
to 5—7 obovate rounded toothed lobes, scabrous on both surfaces ; 
petioles rather lone. ‘Tendrils very slender. Male fl.: Peduncles 
slender, simple or branched at the base. Calyx hispid. Anthers 
ciliate, connective with a produced flat glandular appendage. Female 
? Peduncle 2—4 in. stout, hispid. Ovary echinate with short stiff 
Prickles, Staminodes subulate. Berry oblong, 2 in. long, on a stout 
curved peduncle 3-5 in., rounded at both ends, quite smooth and gla- 
rous except for a very few small scattered prickles. Seeds Niet small, 
in. long, elliptic-oblong, pale brown, smooth, margins rounded, not 
thickened, disk not depressed. 
. Lower Guinea. Angola, in thickets, Golungo Alto, Cazengo, on the sea-shore and 
in and about the town of Loanda, Dr. Welwttsch ! : 
very distinct species in fruit, though undistinguishable in foliage and flowers from 
“yinguria, Figarei, &. eee 
elwitsch describes the fruit as tasting like cucumber. 
C.? striatus, A. Rich, FI. Abyss. i. 295, is unknown to me; the leaves are digitately 
Partite, fruit the size of a large walnut, smooth, glabrous, with 10 strie ; the flowers 
‘re unknown. Schweinfurth (Plant. Nilot. 17) descrives the male flower, but does 
hot detail the structure of the stamens, and considers it as possibly a Cucurlita, 
There are various other indeterminable species of Cucumis in the bays me African 
collections at Kew; amongst the principal is the following from sandy shores, Mossa- 
anes, Lower Guinea, Dr Welwttsch (n. 831). A large green scabrid species, with 
“ng stout-petioled hastate cordate acute leaves, 2 in. long and broad, hispidly scabrid 
on doth surfaces ; male flowers, peduncle 4 in. diameter; female larger on slender 
Pedicels ; ovary oblong, densely clothed with silky white hairs. 
NNQ 
