9-4 
482 CUCURBITACEE (Sond.) 
Orper LVIIL CUCURBITACEA, Juss 
(By W. SonpER.) 
Flowers moncecious or dicecious. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, 
and sometimes produced beyond its summit, in the male-flowers short 
and mostly campanulate ; limb 5-lobed, with imbricate estivation. 
Corolla (very rarely of separate petals) usually monopetalous, rising 
from the summit of the calyx-tube, with which it seems continuous, 
rotate or campanulate, 5-lobed. Stamens inserted in the bottom of the 
ealyx, 5, rarely 3 or 2, free or united wholly or in part; anthers ex- 
trorse, adnate, 1-2-locular, linear, usually very long and flexuous. 
Ovary inferior, of 3-5 united carpels, at first unilocular with promi- 
nent, but revolute, parietal placenta ; afterwards (by the union of the 
placentze into a central column and the adherence of their revolute 
edges to the walls of the ovary) 6—r1o-celled ; ovules numerous, ana- 
tropous, pseudo-parietal. Style terminal, short, 3—5-cleft or parted ; 
stigmas thickened, lobed or fimbriate. Fruit a gourd or berry, dry, or 
fleshy or juicy ; usually by the dissolving of the septa into pulp, uni- 
locular, many-seeded. Seeds flat or convex, with a succulent or 
membranous envelope, exalbuminous; embryo with leafy and veined 
cotyledons, orthotropous. 
Herbaceous or half-shrubby, rarely shrubby plants, natives chiefly of the tropics 
and of the warmer parts of the temperate zones. Stems usually prostrate or climb- 
ing. Leaves alternate, petioled, simple, palmate-nerved, entire or palmatifid, or 
variously lobed, mostly cordate at base. Tendrils formed out of a lateral stipule. 
Flowers often of large size, either solitary, tufted, racemose, or panicled, usually 
white or yellow, sometimes red. To this Order belong melons, gourds, cucumbers, 
and vegetable-marrow, &c. Many however have highly acrid and poisonous or 
powerfully cathartic fruits. Of the former class Momordica Elaterium (the spurting 
cucumber) is one of the most virulent examples, and of the latter the Citrullus Colo- 
cynthis, the source of the drag colocynth. The fruit of (. vulgaris (bitter-apple or 
wild water-melon) is a useful colonial substitute for the drug. 
: TABLE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN GENERA. 
* Stamens 5, free, Anther-cells linear, straight. 
_ ** Stamens 3. Anther-cells linear, straight. 
II. Zehneria. Connective without conical a e. }-/0 
III. Mukia. Connective terminated by a seat wiplndics b~| 
*** Stamens 3 ; two of the filaments bearing a 2-celled, the third a 1-celled 
__ anther. Anther-cells flexuous or 
a. Flowers coetaneous, (appearing with the event e 
IV. Lagenaria. Petals white. Gourd fleshy, indehiscent. Seeds with a tumid p-Q 
border. Male peduncle without bract. & 
NR Mee A i Gourd at length dry and fibrous. Male peduncle ee . 
V1. Momordica. Petals white or yellow. Gourd 3-valved, fleshy, prickly. Male p-\; 
_ VII. Cephalandra. Corolla s- , An- 0-4 
thers combined to a globose 5-parted, yellow. Many-seeded, oblong berry: 
VIII. Citrullus. “Corolla 5-parted, w. Many-seeded gourd. Anther-con-}~| 
nective without terminal with o! margin. oe 
_ 1X. Cucumis. Corolla 5- arted, yellow. Many-seeded gourd. Anther-connec 9-8 es 
tive terminated by an appendicula, Seeds not margi * 
vig Flowers precocious (appearing before the leaves). |” p- 
