192 ORD. XI. Cucurbitacee. 
- MOMORDICA ELATERIUM. WILD, Or SQUIRTING 
CUCUMBER. 
ss sesincaisnismeaietinieconepsstlbeaejacieniitiantidiaiands -dcmmaeecemtnmoate ocietetisianliners 
SYNONYM4A. Cucumis agrestis. Pharm Lond. Cucumis 
asininus. Gerard Emac.p.912. Cucumis sylvestris asininus dictus. 
Bauh. Pin. 314. Cucumis sylvestris sive asininus. J. Bauh. i. p. 
248. aii Hist. p.647. Cucumis agrestis sive asininus. , Park. 
Theat. 161.  Xismus dyeus Greecorum. Succus fructus inspissatus, 
Elaterium dictus, 
Class Monoecia. Ord. Syngenesia. Lin. Gen. Plant. 1090. 
Ess. Gen. Ch. Masc. Cal. 5-fidus. Cor. 5-partita. Filamenta 3. 
Fem. Cal. 5-fidus. Cor. 5-partita. Stylus 3-fidus. 
Pomum elastice dissiliens. 
Sp. Ch. M. pomis hispidis, cirrhis nullis. 
THE root is annual, long, thick, and of a fleshy substance; it 
sends forth several stems, which are round, branched, thick, rough, 
and trailing like the common cucumber, but without tendrils; the 
leaves are irregularly heart-shaped, slightly sinuated, veined, above 
of a deep. green colour, underneath paler, rough, reticulated, and 
stand upon strong footstalks: the flowers proceed ‘from the base of 
the footstalks of the leaves, and are both male and female on the same 
plant: the corolla is divided into five acute segments, reticulated 
with green veins, and placed above the germen: the calyx consists 
of five narrow acute segments: the stamina, in the male flowers, are 
three, short, tapering, two of which have cloven antherz, the other 
has a simple one; in the female flowers the filaments are very short, 
and without antherz: the style is short, trifid, and terminated by 
oblong stigmata, of a green colour: the fruit is large, oblong, hairy, 
divided into three cells, which contain many flat seeds: when 
ripe this fruit, on being touched, bursts open with great force, and 
