400 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
mono-vel polyspermus, aut multi-locularis polyspermus, re- 
ceptaculis seminiferis lateralibus seu parieti affixis." Lindley 
says: * Fruit fleshy, more or less succulent, crowned by the 
scar of the calyx, 1-celled, with three parietal placentæ 37 
and in his * School Botany’ has given a diagram illustrative 
of this structure. Arnott defines a Pepo to be “a fleshy 
inferior fruit, either indehiscent or bursting irregularly, 
and consisting of about three carpels, each divided 
into two cells by its placentiferous margin being so intro- 
flexed as to reach the dorsal suture."  Endlicher's view is 
still different :—* Ovarium inferum, rarissime -uniloculare, . 
ovulo unico ex apice loculi pendulo, plerumque e carpidiis 
tribus vel quinque compositum, carpidiis usque ad axim 
idealem involutis, iterumque revolutum porrectis, marginibus 
ovaliferis parietem attingentibus sex- vel decem-loculare, 
septis alternis sterilibus, alternis angulo parietali utrinque 
ovuliferis sepissime septis primariis e carpidiorum marginibus 
introflexis obsoletis, triquinqueloculare vel secundariis € 
carpidiorum marginibus revolutis pariter obliteratis uni- 
loculare, placentis parietalibus tribus vel quinque gemi- 
natis.” Such a structure as this may be consistent with 
theory, but assuredly not with fact. 
Seringe, in his “ Mémoire sur la famille des Cucurbitacées,” 
was the first to point out, about twenty years ago, the true 
nature of a cucurbitaceous fruit, which, although simple, is 
so extraordinary, and different from what exists in other 
orders, that I can well believe him when he says that he hesi- 
tated to make it known. After describing the normal plan on 
which fruits are formed, viz.: by carpellary leaves, either — 
applied edge to edge, as in those which are one-celled ; oF 
with their margins introflexed, as in such as are plurilocular, 
he says:—* Mais comment se figurer que cette feuille de 
Cucurbitacée, ployée comme il vient d’être dit, pourra 5€ 
retourner dans le fruit et son bord seminifére se trouver dans 
la circonférence au lieu d'occuper le centre? c'est cependant 
ce qu'il faut se figurer pour comprendre l'organisation des 
Cucurbitacées. Le genre Phaca offre bien un exemple de ren- 
