414 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



long by 1^ broad, somewhat ribbed longitudinally and verrucosa. 

 Guadalajara, in grassy bottoms ; August. (281.) 



Melothria scabra, Naud. ? Prostrate and rooting at the joints , 

 fruit an inch long, " resembling little watermelons." Rio Blanco ; 

 July. (179.) — The fruit ('' sandellitas") is j^ickled and also eaten 

 raw. 



CucuRBiTA FiciFOLTA, Bouche. (0. melatiosperma, Al. Br.) The 

 specimens correspond closely with the description of this species (hith- 

 erto known only as cultivated in European gardens and conjectured to 

 be from the East Indies) excepting in the shape of the leaves, which 

 have the lobes (often short) and sinuses acute instead of rounded. 

 Guadalajara, cultivated ; September. (G20,) — The fruit, called " ci- 

 dra cayote " or " chila cayote," is about a foot in length, resembling a 

 watermelon in appearance, with a hard outer shell, the contents white 

 and fibrous, and seeds black. It keeps for many months without 

 decay. A preserve is made of the inner fibrous portion. The name 

 "cayote," given to this and other cucurbitaceous species in Mex- 

 ico, may be the equivalent of the " chayote " of Cervantes and the 

 " chayotli " of Hernaudez. 



Begonia (Knesebeckia) bicolor. Monoecious, glabrous through- 

 out, the herbaceous simple stem (IJ to 2 feet high) from a very short 

 rootstock covered with fibrous roots : leaves thick, only the lower with 

 a very short petiole, the lowermost reuiform, obscurely lobed and with 

 blunt teeth, the rest semiorbicular in outline (2 to 6 inches broad), 

 palmately and unequally 5-lobed, irregularly and acutely toothed, all 

 green above and whitish beneath, mostly bulbiferous in the axils ; 

 stipules semicordate, sparingly toothed : flowers dark rose-oolor, in a 

 terminal bracteate raceme ; pedicels bibracteolate in the middle, the 

 lower \^ inches long : perianth-segments of male flowers 4, the outer 

 oblong-obovate, 6 lines long, the inner suborbicular, 8 lines long ; of 

 pistillate flowers 5, 6 lines long : capsule 6 or 8 lines long, the rather 

 narrow truncate wings nearly equal. Guadalajara ; August. (282.) 

 — " Callules " or " agritos." The succulent stems are eaten by the 

 natives to assuage thirst, and a decoction is u.eed as a carminative. 



Begonia (Knesebeckia) PoRTiLLANA. Monoecious, stem erect; 

 from a very short rootstock, a foot high, glabrous, purjjlish : leaves 

 thin, equalling or the upper exceeding the petioles, subreniform-cordate 

 in outline with a closed sinus (the smaller uppermost not cordate), 3 

 inches long by 4 broad, with few scattered hairs above and on the 

 veins beneath and villous at the summit of the petiole, laciniatcly 

 many-lobed and doubly toothed, the teeth setosely tipped ; stipules 



