540 CUCURBITACE^. Melothru. 



dry and membranous arillus ; the testa coriaceous : albumen none. 

 Embryo straight : cotyledons foliaceous, palmately veined. — Herbs, 

 with succulent stems, climbing by means of tendrils (which are 

 transformed stipules, according to St. Ililaire). Leaves alternate, 

 palmately veined. Flowers axillary, monoecious or dioecious, or 

 rarely perfect. 



1. BRYONIA. Linn. ; Gfertn.fr. t. 88 ; Seringe, in DC. prodr. 3. p. 344. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious. Calyx with 5 short teeth. Petals 5, 

 distinct or united at the base. Sterile Fl. Stamens 5, triadelphous : 

 anthers flexuous. Fertile Fl. Style mostly 3- cleft. Fruit an ovate or 

 globose smooth berry, generally few-seeded. 



§ Styles united to the summit, surrounded at the base by a conspicuous cup- 

 shaped disk : stigmas dilated : ovules solitary in each cell, ascending : berry 

 oval, 3- seeded: seeds {large) compressed, smooth, indistinctly margined, 3- 

 toothed at the base. — Trianosperma. 



1. B. BoyJcinii: scabrous-pubescent; tendrils simple or 2-cleft ; leaves 

 cordate, 3-lobed, or sometimes almost 3-parted, denticulate ; the middle lobe 

 longest, acuminate-cuspidate ; the lateral mostly angled or 2- lobed ; sterile 

 and fertile flowers usually from the same axils, 3-5 together, on very short 

 simple pedicels ; berries crimson, oval or elliptical. 



Low grounds along streams, Georgia, Dr. Boykin! Alabama, Mr. Buck- 

 ley! Louisiana, Dr. Carpenter! Dr. Hcde ! June-July. — li Root fusiform 

 or tuberous. Stem climbing over bushes, sometimes ascending to the height 

 of 15 or 20 feet. Leaves 3-4 inches in diameter. Flowers small, greenish- 

 white. Fruit 6-8 lines in length, longer than the pedicel, bright crimson, 

 soon turning to dirty yellow. Seeds broadly oval, 4-5 lines long, abruptly 

 pointed at the hilum, and with 2 conspicuous lateral teeth. — B. Americana, 

 Lam. is apparently allied to this. 



2. MELOTHRIA. Linn. ; Juss. gen. p. 395. 



Flowers polygamous or monoecious. Calyx in the perfect and fertile flow- 

 ers constricted into a short filiform tube above the ovary, then campanulate, 

 in the sterile flowers infundibuliform-campanulate ; the segments subulate, 

 often minute. Petals 5, united into a campanulate corolla ; the perfect flow- 

 ers sometimes apetalous. Sterile Fl. Stamens 5, triadelphous: anthers 

 (of the three parcels) connate, at length separate, contorted. A cup-shaped 

 disk or rudiment in the bottom of the calyx. Fertile Fl. Style surrounded 

 at the base by a cup-shaped or lobed disk : stigmas 3, dilated. Sterile fila- 



fruit, with parietal placentsB that sometimes send out false dissepiments towards 

 the axis, as the cucumber and gourd." Am. prodr. Ind. Or. \.p. 340. — The exami- 

 nation of a transverse section of a gourd or melon manifestly shows this to be the 

 proper view of its carpological structure. 



