CPCUEBITACEjE. 140 ECHJNOCTSTIS. 



tion. Fruit of the size and shape of a large apple, orange-colored when ripe, 

 with a tliick rind and sweetisli pulp. It is served up in desserts. 



iSweel Calabash. Granadilla. 



ORDER LX. CUCURBITACE^. The Gourd Tribe. 



Cal. — 5-toothed. [marked with reticulated veins. 



Cor. — Petals 5, united with each other and cohering to the calyx, very cellular, strongly 

 Sta. — 5, distinct, more generally cohering in 3 sets, Anth. very long and wavy or twisted. 

 Oi<a. — Interior, l-celled, with 3 parietal placentae often filling the cells. 

 J^. — A pepo or membranous. Seeds flat, M'ith no albumen, often ariled. 



An order of succulent herbs, climbing by tendrils, with alternate, palmately veined, rough 

 leaves. Flowers never blue, monctcious or polygamous. They are natives of tropical re- 

 gions, only a few being found in the Temperate Zones of Europe and America. A highly 

 important order of plants, aflbrding some of the most delicious and nutritive of fruits. A 

 bitter, laxative principle pervades the group, which is so concentrated in a lew a.s to ren- 

 der them actively medicinal. The oflicinal colocynth is prepared I'rom the pulp of Cucumis 

 Colocynthis, a powerl'ul drastic poison. 



Conspectus of the Genera. 



( Seeds thin at edge, Cucumis 4 



( indehiscent ; | Seeds thick at edge, Cucurhita. 5 



f a fle.shy pepo, many-seeded, ( dehiscing elastically, . . . Mnmordica. 3 



j I 4-seeded, ........ Eehinocyitus.'i 



Fruit ( membraiiaceous, ( I-seeded, , Sicyos. 1 



1. SI'CYOS. 

 Flowers monoecious. Sterile Jlowers — Calyx 5-toothed; 

 corolla 5-parled ; filaments 3. Fcrlileft. — Calyx 5-toothed; 

 corolla 5-parted ; styles 3-cleft ; fruit ovate, hispid, or echi- 

 nate; seed large, compressed. 



Gr. (T\,y.x,oi, unpleasant, for such is certainly the taste of the single seeded 

 cucumber. 



S. Angula'ta. 



Leaves cordate, with an obtuse sinus, 5-angled, denticulate, rough. Native 

 on river banl^s. A week, climbing vine, witli long, spiral, branching tendrils. 

 Stem branching, hairy. Loaves 3 or 4 incites broad, alternate, on long stalks. 

 Flowers axillary, whitish, marked with green lines, the barren ones on long, 

 racemose peduncles. Fruit half an inch long, ovate, spinous, 8 — 10 together 

 in a round head, and each with one large, ovate seed. July. Ann. 



Single seed cucumber. 



2. ECHINOCY'STIS. 

 Flowers monoecious. Sterile Jl. — Calyx of 6 filiform-subulate 

 segments, shorteir than the corolla; petals 6, united at base 

 into a rotate-campanulate corolla; stamens 3, diadelphous. 

 Fertile Jl. — Cal. and cor. as above ; abortive fil. 3, distinct, 

 minute; style very short ; stig. 2, large ; fruit roundish, infla- 

 ted, echinate. Annual, climbing. 



E. LOBA'TA. T.S/-G. Moniordica echinata. Muh. Sicyos lobata. Mx. 



Fruit roundish, setose-echinatc, with 4 seeds; leaves cordate, with 5 angu- 

 lar lobes, acuminate, sub-entire; cali/x G-cleft. A running vine, rarely found 



