200 CLASS DICECIA. 



States. — Its sterile floivers have a 5-toothed calyx ; a 

 5-parted corolla ; and 3 filaments. The fertile floivers 

 are similar, but have a 3-cleft style ; and the Pepoor 

 bristly pericarp is small, dry, and only 1-seeded. The 

 plant is an annual, trailing on bushes near the banks 

 of rivers, in light rich soils. It has cordate. 5-angled, 

 toothed, and scabrous leaves. The flowers are greenish 

 white, and the small fruit is green, clustered, and 

 hispid. 



The Cucurbita, or Gourd, Pumpkin, and Squash, 

 is chiefly distinguished from the Cucumis, or Cucum- 

 ber and Melon, by having a tumid margin to its seeds ; 

 those of Cucumis having seed with an edge. They 

 have nearly all a yellow, 5-cleft, monopetalous, almost 

 funnel-shaped corolla ; and a calyx also divided into 

 5 segments; with 3 filaments ; a large berry-like fruit 

 called a Pepo, in the Gourd and Melon very large 

 and ribbed ; in the Cucumber rugged and warty. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



OF THE CLASS DICECIA. 



There is no difference in this class from the pre- 

 ceding but the circumstance, that the perfect and im- 

 perfect flowers occupy different individual plants of 

 the same species, hence the appellation of Dhecia, 

 or of two habitations ; and the orders are also taken, 

 as in Mon(ecia, from the other classes. 



In Diandria you will find the Willow (Salicc), whose 

 staminiferous flowers are in cylindric aments (often 

 produced before the leaves), the scales 1-flowered, 

 and mutually imbricated ; with a nectariferous gland 

 at the base of each. There is no calyx or corolla. 

 The stamina also vary from 1 to 5. The fertile flow- 

 ers are similar, but in place of stamens have 2 stigmas, 



