CUCURBITACE^. 141 



in N. England and the Middle States. The stem is smooth, deeply furrowed, 

 with long, divided tendrils, placed mostly opposite to the long leaf-stalks. 

 Flowers white, small, the barren ones very numerous, in axillary panicles. 

 Fertile ones solitary, situated at the base of the panicle. Fruit small. Aug. 

 Annual. Bristly Balsam-apple. 



3. MOMO'RDICA. 



Flowers monoecious. Slerele Jl. — Calyx 5 — 6-cleft; corol- 

 la 5— 6-parted; filaments 3. Ferlile fl.—Ca\yx and corolla 

 as above; style 3-cleft ; berry bursting elastically ; seeds com- 

 pressed. 



Lat. mordeo, momordi, to chew ; from the appearance of the seeds, the rough 

 surface of which appears as if chewed. 



M. Balsami'na. 



Fruit roundish-ovate, angular, tuberculate ; leaves palmate, spreading, 

 smooth. An annual, tender plant from E. India. Fruit orange-colored^ as 

 large as a goose egg, splitting elastically on one side and discharging the seeds. 

 The fruit has been considered a good vulnerary. Common Balsam-apple. 



4. CU'CUMIS. 



Flowers monoecious. Slerilejl. — Calyx 5-toothed, campan- 



ulate; corolla 5-parted ; filaments 5, in 3 sets. Ferlilef,. — 



Calyx 5-toothed; corolla 5-parted; ovary 3fid; fruit {pepo) 



with sharp-edged seeds. 



Said to be derived from the Celtic cvce, a hollow thing ; a teim more appli- 

 cable to the gourd than to the cucumber. 



1. C. SATI'VUS. 



Angles of the leaves straight; fruit ^n oblong, prickly, pome-like berry. 

 The cucumber is a native of Asia, whence it was brought to England in 1573. 



Cucuinber, 



2. C. Meld. 



Angles of the leaves rounded; fruit oblong, torulose. First cultivated in 

 England in 1570. Muskmelon. 



3. C. Angui'nis. 



Leaves \ohed ; fruit cylindric, very long, smooth, contorted and folded upon 

 itself. From the East Indies. Serpent Cucumber. 



4. C. Colocy'nthis. 



Leaves many-cleft; fruit globose, smooth. From Cape Good Hope. The 

 fruit of the colycinth is about the size, form and color of the orange, with an 

 intolerably bitter pulp. The extract is the colycinth of the shops, an acrid 

 poison, but with other substances is a useful cathartic. Colycinth, 



5. C. angu'ria. 



Leaves palmate-sinuate; fruit globose, echinate. Native of Jamaica. 



Prickly Cucumber, 



