EXOGENOUS OR DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 423 



in water impregnated Avith this juice is rendered tender : even the 

 exhalations from the tree are said to produce the same efTect upon 

 meat suspended among the leaves. 



829. Ord. CucurbitacetB {Gourd Family). Tender or succulent 

 herbs, climbing by tendrils ; with alternate, palmately veined or 

 lobed, rough leaves, and monoecious or dioecious flowers. Calyx of 

 four or five (rarely six) sepals, united into a tube, and in the fertile 

 flowers adherent to the ovary. Petals as many as the sepals, com- 

 monly more or less united into a monopetalous corolla, which co- 

 heres Avith the calyx. Stamens five or three, or i-ather two and a 

 half, i. e. two with two-celled anthers, and one with a one-celled an- 

 ther, inserted into the base of the corolla or calyx, either distinct or 

 variously united by their filaments, and long, sinuous or contorted 

 anthers (Fig. 465-4G7). Ovary one- to five-celled ; the thick and 

 fleshy placentas often filling the cells, or diverging before or after 

 reaching the axis, and carried back so as to reach the walls of the 

 pericarp, sometimes manifestly parietal ; the dissepiments often dis- 

 appearing during its growth, sometimes only one-ovuled from the top : 

 stigmas thick, dilated or fringed. Fruit (pepo. Fig. 5 GO) usually 

 fleshy, with a hard rind, sometimes membranous. Seeds mostly flat, 

 with no albumen. Embryo straight: cotyledons foliaceous. — Ex. 

 The Pumpkin and Squash (Cucurbita), Gourd, Cucumber, and 

 Melon. When the acrid principle which prevails throughout the 

 order is greatly diffused, the fruits are eatable, and sometimes deli- 

 cious : when concentrated, as in the Bottle Gourd, Bryony, &c., they 

 are dangerous or actively poisonous. The officinal Cohcynth, the 

 resinoid and bitter pulp of the fruit of Cucumis Colocynthis, is A'ery 

 acrid and poisonous ; and Elaterium, obtained from the juice of tlie 

 Squirting Cucumber, is still more violent in its effects. The seeds 

 of all are harmless. 



830. Ord. Crassulacesc (Stonecrop Family). Herbs, or slightly 

 shrubby plants, mostly fleshy or succulent ; remarkable for the com- 

 plete symmetry and regularity of their flowers (449, Fig. 359 - 365). 

 Calyx of three to twenty sepals, more or less united at the base, 

 free from the ovaries, persistent. Petals as many as the sepals, 

 rarely combined into a monopetalous corolla. Stamens as many or 

 twice as many as the sepals, more or less perigynous. Pistils always 

 as many as the sepals, distinct, or rarely (in Penthorum and Dia- 

 morpha) partly united : ovaries becoming folHcles in fruit, several- 

 seeded. Embryo straight, in thin albumen. — Fx. Sedum (Stone- 



