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XIV. Observations on the Structure of the Fruit in the Order of 

 Cucurbitacea. By FRANCIS HAMILTON, M. D. F. R. S. 

 & F. A. S. LOND. & ED. 



(Read 4,th February 1828.) 



JL HE fruit in this natural order does not appear to have been 

 well understood by most botanists ; and I shall therefore attempt 

 to give a general view of what appears to me to be its structure ; 

 and most of the parts are visible in the section which is here 

 given (Plate IX. Fig. 1.) of the beautiful but insipid Indian Me- 

 lon (Cucumis Melo) called Phuti. 



The outer parietes (Fig. 1. a,) when young, are thick, fleshy, 

 and undivided by sutures, with an uniform rind, not separable 

 from the fleshy part. As the fruit ripens, the rind in some 

 cases becomes so thin as to be unable to contain the pulpy mat- 

 ter, and bursts either gradually, as in the melon, or with elasti- 

 city as in the Momordica and Elaterium of TOURNEFOKT. At 

 other times, the rind hardens either into a thin substance like 

 leather or strong paper, as in the Luffa, or into a strong ligneous 

 covering, as in the Cucurbita leucanthema or gourd. In these 

 cases, it sometimes opens horizontally, by means of an operculum, 

 which falls off and leaves an aperture for the seeds, as in Fig. 2. 

 representing the summit of the Luffa called Picinna in the Hor- 

 tus Malabaricus. 



The fruit is divided into three loculi or cells, by three mem- 

 branous septa, proceeding from the outer parietes towards the 

 centre (Fig. 1. 6), and in the young fruit accompanied by a thick 

 covering of parenchymatous substance, like that of the parietes, 



