ones are surrounded at the base by laciniated bracts. This, which 

 at first sight appears a most important difference, is in reality 

 not so, for in another most closely allied species, of which we 

 have a drawing, both naked and bracteate male flowers are re- 

 presented as springing from the same axil, and in still older plants 

 of the Order, as Momordica tubiflora, Roxb. (Fl. Ind. 711), the 

 young plants produce solitary flowers, and the older ones longer 

 peduncled flowers with gashed bracts. Under these circum- 

 stances we have ventured to introduce the figures (3 to 8) of 

 the female flower, fruit, and seed from Dr. Hooker's drawings 

 and dried specimens, with the object of better illustrating the 

 genus. 



Professor Oliver was much struck with this graceful climber 

 in the Parisian Gardens, and thus remarks upon it in the * Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle' for September, 1864, p. 345: — "You notice 

 this Cucurbit in 1861, p. 848, as having been then recently in- 

 troduced by the French Acclimatization Society. I wonder if your 

 notice attracted the attention of English floriculturists to it. 

 Pew things which I saw in a recent visit to the Botanic Gardens 

 of Paris, Lyons, and Grenoble, pleased me more than this 

 plant. In the experimental gardens of the Jardin des Plantes, 

 it grows like a weed, covering everything in its way with a pretty 

 foliage of velvety, heart-shaped leaves, and a profuse abundance 

 of beautiful, bell-shaped, yellow flowers. There can be no doubt 

 that in the south of England, at any rate, it would grow well 

 enough out-of-doors. In the north, if too cold, it would be a 

 valuable addition as a greenhouse climber." 



Descr. A tall scrambling climber, of a bright pale-green co- 

 lour, uniformly clothed with a rather stiff pubescence. Branches 

 very slender. Tendrils simple. Leaves broadly ovate-cordate, with 

 a very deep closed sinus at the base, irregularly toothed. Mowers 

 solitary, axillary, on slender hispid peduncles, bright-yellow. 

 Calyx of five reflexed linear-oblong lobes. Corolla campanulate, 

 five-lobed to the base, lobes channelled and obtusely ribbed, ob- 

 tuse, glabrous ; at the base of the corolla is a small unilateral 

 scale which projects over the central hairy disk. Stamens five, 

 four in pairs opposite two of the petals, one opposite the union 

 of two petals. Anthers linear-oblong, extrorse. Female flowers 

 like the male. Ovary narrow-oblong, tomentose ; stigmas three, 

 with capitate reniform stigmas. Berry oblong, with about 

 twelve elevated ribs, very succulent, eaten by the natives. Seeds 

 in about twelve rows, covered with pulp. 



Pig. 1. Male plant. 2. Flower, cut open,— natural size. 3. Female flower. 

 4. Ovary. 5. Berry. 6. Transverse section of ditto. 7 and 8. Seed -.—all 

 natural size. Figs. 3 to 8 all from the Himalayan specimens. 



