Dr. J. E. Stocks on the Structure of Cucurbitacese. Ill 



been considered to agree in number with the former, four of them 

 uniting by pairs and so leaving the odd one free ; and this view is 

 favoured by the occurrence of transitions from the complete union 

 both of anther and filament through various stages to the complete 

 independence of all the five members, such as exists in Luffa pen- 

 tandra even as to vascular bundles. According to this view, each 

 anther has a continuous, generally anfractuose loculus, with a 

 median fissure following its curves, and a longitudinal septum (!) 

 which must represent the connective or middle line of the anther, 

 from which, on this supposition, the anther-valves in Cucurbi- 

 tacece must separate. Moreover, on this view of the structure, the 

 loculi of adjacent anthers are bent in opposite directions. But 

 in Coccinia indica there are always six such serpentine loculi 

 united by pairs, and in Citrullus Colocynthis and vulgaris there 

 are as often six as five, the supplementary one frequently not quite 

 so anfractuose as the others. It is by no means a necessary de- 

 duction that six is the normal, and five the reduced number of the 

 staminal leaves. 



The three-lobed, waxy, nectar-secreting disc so universally 

 present in Cucurbitacece deserves attention ; which in the female 

 flower might be supposed to represent the stamens, were it not for 

 the constant presence of anantherous filaments, whose situation 

 and sometimes the anthers developed on them (Citrullus) point 

 them out as the sterile stamens. In some this disc is adherent 

 to the calyx, in others free ; in this latter case it is perforated by 

 the style in the female flower, but in the male forms a button in 

 the centre of the flower — the abortive ovary of some. It is ma- 

 nifestly a degeneration of the same part in both male and female 

 flowers, and from its constantly presenting three divisions we 

 gather that it represents an inner whorl of three staminal leaves. 

 In Momordica Charantia it sometimes developes a flat, coloured 

 body bearing pollen on its edge. 



Three ovarial leaves and three inner staminal leaves presup- 

 pose an outer whorl of three (not six) stamens. In Cucurbitacece, 

 then, the inner whorl of stamens is indicated by a disc, and the 

 number of its leaves by the divisions of that disc. The outer 

 whorl is of three leaves, whose blade is abortive, and whose 

 anther-cells are developed on the auricles of the sheath-part of 

 the leaf, corresponding to the tendrils of the stem-leaves, or the 

 stigma-points of the ovarial leaves. Each staminal leaf is of two 

 parts as the stigma-points arc two, and as the tendrils (stipules) 

 are two ; and as in the stem-leaves one tendril is suppressed, so 

 also in the staminal leaves one of the six loculi is generally want- 

 ing, often imperfect, but in many cases developed equally with 

 the others. 



Thus arc reconciled the occurrence of five or of six members 



