158 GOURD FAMILY. 



+- Leaves palmatdy lolird : flower ici<My spreading. 



P. gracilis. Slender herb, with roundish and slightly 3-lohcd otherwise 

 entire leaves, and whitisli merely 5-Heft flower only 1' in diameter, ilestitute of 

 true petals. Recently introduced, remarkable for the quick movement uf its 

 tendrils. i 



P. CSerulea, fhe COMMON <>r 1'ii.n. I' \^MO\-]-I.OWI;K ; with leaves very 

 deeply elet'r or parted into f> or 7 lance-oblong entire divisions, pale ; and flower 

 almost white, except the purple centre and blue crown handed with whitish in 

 the middle. 



P. 6dulis, GKANAHII.LA ; the purpli>h edible fruit as large as a goose-egg : 

 leaves dark green and glossy, deeply Heft into 3 ovate pointed lobes beset with 

 callous teeth ; bracts under the flower also toothed ; the crown crisped, 2' across, 

 whitish with a blue or violet base, as long as the white petals. 



i- *- Leaves entire, feather-veined : flower bell-shaped. 



P. quadrangularis, LAKGE GRAXADILLA. Very large, with the branches 

 4-sided and the angles wing-margined; leaves 4' - 8' long, ovate or oval, or 

 slightly heart-shaped, bright green, with 2-4 pairs of glands on the petiole; 

 flower about 3' long, fragrant, crimson-purple and the violet or blue crown 

 variegated with white. Fruit rarely formed here, edible, 6' long. 



52. CUCURBITACE.3E, GOURD FAMILY. 



Mostly tendril-bearing herbs, with succulent but not fleshy herb- 

 age, watery juice, alternate palmately ribbed and mostly lobed or 

 angled leaves, monoecious or sometimes dioecious flowers ; the calyx 

 coherent with the ovary, corolla more commonly monopetalous, 

 and stamens usually 3, of which one has a '1 -celled, the others 

 2-celled anthers; but the anthers are commonly tortuous and often 

 all combined in a head, and the filaments sometimes all united in 

 a tube or column. Fruit usually fleshy. Embryo large, filling the 

 seed, straight, mostly with flat or leaf-like cotyledons. Besides 

 those here described, there are occasionally cultivated for curiosity 

 the following annuals : 



MOMOKDICA. ELATEKIUM or ECBALIUM AGRE'STE, the SQUIRT- 

 ING CUCUMBER, a homely hairy herb without tendrils, and pro- 

 ducing an oblong hairy pulpy fruit (of violently purgative qualitie<), 

 which when ripe bursts suddenly at the touch, and discharges the 

 contents \vi;h violence (whence the name Ecbalium). 



TRICHOSANTHES COLUBRIXA, SNAKE-CUCUMBER or VEGE- 

 TABLE SERPENT, a tall climber with the staminate flowers orna- 

 mental, the lobes of the white corolla being cut into a lace-like 

 fringe of long and very delicate capillary lobes (whence the name 

 of the genus), and the fruit very like a snake, 3 or 4 feet long, 

 green and striped, turning red when ripe. 



1. f-'loirers luri/i' or mi<l<lle-sized. on separate si m pit pvilunch's in the axils: anthers 

 With lnii;/ nitil narrow cells, bfiit u/> mid doint or imitoi-leil : ovules and seeds 

 many, horizontal, on >n*tli/ 3 siinplr nr double /iluceiitic: fruit (of the sort 

 called a JH-JJO) lari/e^jU-sliy or pulpy with a lianlcr riml. 



* Both kinds of flowers solitary in the axils. 



1. LA6ENARIA. Tendrils 2-forked. Flowers inusk-<ivnted, with a funnel-form 

 or bell-shaped ealyx-tulie, and 6 obcordate or obnvatc and mucronnte white 

 petals; the sterile on :i long, the fertile in a shorter peduncle. Anthers lightly 

 cohering with eaeh other. Stigmas 3, each 2-lobed. Fruit with a hard or 

 woody riud and soft flesh. Seeds margined. Petiole bearing a pair of glands 

 at the apex. 



