GENUS I. 



GOURD FAMILY. 



291 



terminal, simple or lobed; ovules few or numerous, anatropous. Fruit a pepo, 

 indehiscent, or rarely dehiscent at the summit, or bursting irregularly; or some- 

 times dry and membranous Seeds usually flat; endosperm none. 



About 90 genera and 700 species, mainly natives of tropical regions, a few in the temperate zones. 



Flowers large, yellow; prostrate vine. i. Pepo. 



Flowers small, white or greenish ; climbing vines. 



Fruit glabrous ; seeds numerous, horizontal. 2. Melothria. 



Fruit prickly ; seeds i or 'few, erect or pendulous. 



Fruit dehiscent at the apex or bursting irregularly ; several-seeded. 



Leaves 3~7-lobed ; anthers 3. 3. Micrampelis. 



Leaves digitately compound; anther i. 4. Cyclanthera. 



Fruit indehiscent, i-seeded. 5. Sicyos. 



i. PEPO [Tourn.] Mill. Card. Diet. Abr. Ed. 4. 1754. 



Rough prostrate vines, rooting at the nodes, with branched tendrils, usually lobed leaves 

 mostly cordate at the base, and large yellow axillary monoecious flowers. Calyx-tube cam- 

 panulate, usually 5-lobed. Corolla campanulate, 5-lobed to about the middle, the lobes recurv- 

 ing. Staminate flowers with three stamens, the anthers linear, more or less united and no 

 pistil. Pistillate flowers with I pistil ; ovary oblong with 3-5 many-ovuled placentae ; style 

 short, thick ; stigmas 3-5, each 2-lobed, papillose ; staminodia 3. Fruit large, fleshy, with a 

 thick rind, many-seeded, indehiscent. [From the Greek name of some large fruit.] 



About 10 species, natives of America, Asia and Africa. Besides the following, some 6 others 

 occur in the southern and southwestern United States. Type species : Cucurbita Pepo L. 



i. Pepo foetidissima (H.B.K.) Britton. Missouri Gourd. Calabazilla. Wild 



Pumpkin. Fig. 4010. 



Cucurbita foetidissima H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 2: 123. 



1817. 



Cucumis perennis James in Long's Exp. 2 : 20. 1823. 

 Cucurbita perennis A. Gray, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. 



6: 193. 1850. 



Stem stout, rough, hirsute, trailing to a length 

 of i5-25. Root large, carrot-shaped. Petioles 

 stout, 3'-8' long, very rough ; leaves ovate-trian- 

 gular, thick and somewhat fleshy, cordate or trun- 

 cate at the base, acute at the apex, 4^-12' long, 

 usually slightly 3~5-lobed, denticulate, rough above, 

 canescent beneath; peduncles \'-2 r long; flowers 

 mostly solitary; corolla 2^-4' long; pepo globose 

 or globose-ovoid, 2'-3' in diameter, smooth, its 

 pulp fibrous and bitter. 



Dry soil, Missouri and Nebraska to Texas and 

 Mexico, west to southern California. May-Sept. 



Pumpkins, Squashes, Cucumbers and Melons, cul- 

 tivated in many races belong to this genus. Gourds 

 belong to Cucurbita Lagenaria L., the type of the 

 genus Cucurbita. 



Citrullus Citrullus (L.) Karst., the Watermelon, is 

 found escaped from cultivation along river-shores in Virginia and West Virginia, and southward. 



2. MELOTHRIA L. Sp. PI. 35. 1753. 



Slender, mostly climbing vines, with simple or rarely bifid tendrils, lobed or entire thin 

 leaves, and small white or yellow monoecious flowers, the staminate clustered, the pistillate 

 often solitary. Calyx campanulate, 5-toothed. Corolla campanulate, deeply 5-parted. Stamens 

 3 in the staminate flowers, the anthers distinct or slightly united, the pistil wanting or rudi- 

 mentary. Fertile flowers with i pistil; ovary ovoid, constricted below the corolla; placentae 

 3 ; ovules numerous ; style short ; stigmas 3, linear. Fruit small, berry-like, pulpy, many- 

 seeded. [From the Greek for some vine, probably Bryonia cretica.] 



About 70 .species, natives of warm and tropical regions, most abundant in the Old World. 

 Besides the following typical one, 3 or 4 others occur in the southern United States. 



