236 CUCURBITACE^. 



the last: fr. globose: seeds 5 lines long. —Near Fresno, Bioletli. and 

 southward. 



3. C. Califoruica, Terr.; Wats. 1. c. Canescent with a short white 

 stiif pubescence : leaves thick, 5-lobed, 2 in. broad ; lobes triangular, 

 acute or acuminate, mucronate : tendrils slender, parted to the base : 

 fi. small, 1 in. long or more : calyx 4 — 5 lines, the linear teeth 2 lines. — 

 Fresno Co., Biolelti, and northward to the Sacramento Valley. 



2. MICRAMPELIS, Rafiaesque (Big-Root). Rather slender mem- 

 branous-leaved trailing or climbing herbs, with simple tendrils, and 

 small white flowers, the fertile solitary and the sterile racemose or 

 panicled from the same axil. Galyx-tube broadly campanulate, the teeth 

 very small or obsolete. Corolla rotate or campanulate, deeply 5 — 7-lobed, 

 with elongated papillose segments. Sterile fi. with stamens at base ; 

 filaments short, united : anthers distinct or more or less coherent. 

 Fertile fi. pedicellate, with or without abortive stamens. Ovary globose 

 or oblong, bristly, 2— 4-celled ; cells 1 — 4-ovuled : style short; stigma 

 2 — 3-parted or -lobed. Fruit prickly on the outside, fibrous and watery- 

 pulpy within, dehiscing somewhat irregularly near the apex. Seeds 

 large, ovoid or more rounded, more or less compressed, encircled by a 

 mere marginal line ; hilum linear, acute ; cotyledons thick, remaining 

 within the integuments after germination. All our species perennials 

 with very large fleshy fusiform roots. * 



* Leaves rather longer than broad; corollas rotate. 



1. M. fabacea, Greene, Pittonia, ii. 129 (1890) ; Naud. Ann. Sc. Nat. 

 xii. 154 (1859), under Echinocystis. Megarrhiza Caiifornica, Wats. Proc. 

 Am. Acad. xi. 138 (1876). Glabrous or nearly so, the younger parts with 

 scattered short curved hairs : stem climbing, 10 — 30 ft. long :. leaves 

 2 — 6 in. broad, of round-ovate general outline, more or less deeply and 

 angularly 5 — 7-lobed ; lobes abruptly acute, mucronate, the sinuses 

 obtuse : sterile fl. 15 — 30 in slender racemes, the pedicels 1 — 2 lines long; 

 corolla 3 — 4 lines broad, of a dull or greenish white : fertile fl. 5 — 6 lines 

 broad, without abortive stamens : ovary globose, densely echinate, 

 2-celled, 4-ovuled : fr. globose, 2 in. long, densely covered with stout 

 pungent spines % — 1 in. long : seeds 4, obovoid, 10 lines long, 6 lines 

 broad. Var. agrestis. Stems 2 — 4 ft. long, prostrate or merely trailing; 

 leaves and fruits much smaller, the latter armed only sparsely with very 

 short almost innocuous spines. — The type is common all along the sea- 

 board, growing in thickets and climbing high over shriibs and smail 

 trees. The variety occupies the open plains of the interior, and is a weed 

 in the grain fields of the valley of the San Joaquin. Fl. Jan. — Apr. 



2. M. macrocarpa, Greene, 1. c, and Bull. Calif. Acad. i. 188 (1885), 

 under Echinocystis. Size habit and foliage of the above, but fruits more 



