WIGHT ON THE FRUIT OF THE CUCURBITACEJE. 39 i 



leaf is so constant, that the possibility of an inversion of this 

 order of things in a pepo seems never to have entered into 

 the calculations of any one of the numerous botanists who 

 have given their attention to the investigation of the struc- 

 ture of this curious fruit; and yet such is simply the case. 

 In a pepo the normal position of the midrib of the carpellary 

 leaf is reversed, that is, is placed in the axis, and the placen- 

 tiferous margins towards the circumference.* That such is 

 actually the case requires no argument to prove it; we have only 

 to cut the ovary of any true Cucurbitaceous plant to be made 

 sensible, with a glance, that it is so; though I confess that in 

 none have I seen it so clearly made out as in Cocciyiia Indica, 

 owing to the carpels of that species remaining distinct; merely 

 held together, not as usual by cohesion between the respec- 

 tive carpels, but by the tube of the calyx in which they are 

 enclosed. Did I wish to illustrate the theory by means of a 

 diagram, I could not devise one more perfect than a simple 

 section of the ovary of that plant, merely extending the na- 

 tural divisions, by dividing the calyx, so as to allow each of 

 the carpels to be slightly separated in the representation, to 

 facilitate the demonstration. This, Iiowever, I think is even 

 unnecessary, for with the clew to the true structure, which 

 this species furnishes, there can no longer be any difficulty 

 in understanding it from the examination of any genuine 

 species of the order. 



What effect this new exposition of the structure of the 

 ovarium may have on the determination of the affinities of 

 this order, I am, up to the present time, quite unprepared to 

 say; but of this I feel certain, that in so far as structure is con- 

 cerned, they are as far removed from all their now reputed 

 allies, as their peculiar habit removes them from all the 

 Parietose families, except Passifone, among which Bartling, 

 Endlicher and Lindley, have placed them. This very unusual 

 structure, in short, marks them as a peculiar order, the affini- 

 ties of which have still to be sought for. 



* " This view is much the same as that advanced by Seringe sixteen years 

 ago; but from which I still dissent."— Arnott. 



