544 GROSSULACE^. Ribes. 



fetid musky odor; stem climbing; tendrils 3-4-cleft; leaves cordate, nearly 

 entire or lobed, with 2 glands at the base ; flowers fascicled ; petals widely 

 spreading ; fruit clavate-ventricose, pubescent, at length glabrous and very 

 smooth. — DC. I. c. Cucurbita Lagenaria, Linn.; Lam. ill. t. 795; Null, 

 gen. 2. p. 228 ; Ell. sk. 2. ]}. 662. 



Cultivated by the Indians from the earliest discovery of North America, 

 and naturalized in many portions of the Southern States. It is the well- 

 known Calibash or Bottle-Gourd. 



Neurosperma, Raf. (in jour. phys. §-c. 1819) is most probably, as Seringe 

 suspects, nothing more than the Balsam-Apple (Momordica Balsamina), which is 

 often cultivated, but scarcely naturalized in the United States. 



Cucurbita verrucosa (a species of Squash) is mentioned by Nuttall as a plant 

 which has long been cultivated by the aborigines beyond the Mississippi. 



Order LXI. GROSSULACE.^. DC. 



Calyx adherent, campanulate or tubular, colored, marcescent, 5- 

 (rarely 4-) cleft ; the segments mostly equal, imbricate in aestivation, 

 at length spreading or retlexed. Petals distinct, equal in number to 

 the segments of the calyx and alternate with them, small, inserted 

 in the throat of the calyx. Stamens as many as the petals and in- 

 serted alternately with them : anthers introrse. Ovary coherent 

 with the calyx-tube, l-celled, with 2 parietal placentae : ovules nu- 

 merous or sometimes rather few : styles 2 (very rarely 3-4) distinct 

 or united. Fruit a berry, crowned with the remains of the ilower, 

 l-celled, many, (rarely rather few.) seeded. Seeds anatropous, the 

 raphe at length distinct from the gelatinous testa : the inner integu- 

 ment somewhat crustaceous, adhering firmly to the dense fleshy al- 

 bumen. Embryo minute, excentric, next the micropyle. — Shrubs 

 either spiny or unarmed, with alternate (often fascicled) palmately 

 veined and lobed exstipulate leaves, which are sometimes sprinkled 

 with resinous dots. Flowers (rarely dioecious) racemose, either pro-' 

 duced from the same bud with the leaves and terminating the very 

 short axillary branches, or sometimes from leafless buds. 



1. RIBES. Linn. ; Juss. gen. p. 281 ; DC prodr. 3. p. 477. 



Grossularia, Tourn. — Ribes & Robsonia, Endl. 

 Character same as of the Order. 



§ 1. Stews armed ivith subaxillary spines and scattered prickles : leaves plicate 

 in vernation : peduncles 2-3-Jl(noered : segments of the calyx, petals, and 

 stamens 4 or sometimes 5 : filaments very much exserted : ovules rather few 

 in number, in a double series: berries prickly. — Robsonia, Berlandier. 



