. : 
Momordica, MONOECIA SYNGENESTA,- 709 
The ripe fruit is eaten raw by the natives, and while green 
in their curries, Crows and other birds are fond of them, ~~~ 
4. M. dioeca, Willd. iv. 605. 
Dioecous, root perennial, tuberous. Leaves from three to: 
five-lobed, scabrous, Petioles without glands. Male and 
female flowers solitary, the former cowl-bracted. | Fruit 
ovate, muricate, bursting. Seeds a few. 
Bem paval. Rheed, Mal. viii, t. 18. 
Pooagakara is the Telinga name of the male plants, and 
Agakara of the female.” 
They are natives of thickets, and banks of rivers, where there 
are bushes for them to run on, Flowering time the wet and 
cold seasons, 
Root tuberous, large, eetinct: with vimensit of an as- 
‘tringent taste. Stems annual, five-sided, slender, smooth, 
about as thick as a log line, running to the extent of one or 
two fathoms, Tendri/s simple. Leaves scattered, petioled, 
from three to five-lobed, irregularly toothed; above a litile 
scabrous, below pretty smooth.. Mane rLowers ona differ- 
ent plant, axillary, solitary, large, yellow, long-peduncled. 
Peduncles with a large, gibbous, striated, blown up spathe- 
like bracte at the apex, which encloses the bottom of the 
flowers. Corol, petals lanceolate, FEMALE FLOWERS axil- 
lary, solitary, peduncled, large, of a pale yellow. Peduncles 
about 'as long as the petals, near the base there is a small 
sheathing bracte. , Fruit about the size and shape of a part- 
ridge’s egg, murexed, Seeds many, oval, gray ; each sur- 
rounded with a large, pulpy, crimson aril. 
_ The natives eat the tender, green fruit in their curries; 
also the tuberous roots of the female plant; they are larger 
than those of the male, generally weighing from two to three 
5. M. mixta, Roxb. 
iain root tuberous, perennial, Lewes sub plate 
