CUCURBITACEAE A61 
pedicelled, the male and female similar in color and size, yellow, about 2 
em long. Fruit various, usually cylindric, 10 to 20 em long, yellow when 
mature, slightly tuberculate. (Fl. Filip. pl. 299.) 
Generally cultivated for its edible fruits, fl. all the year. Cultivated in 
all warm and tropical countries, probably a native of tropical Asia. 
9. MOMORDICA Linnaeus 
Slender, coarse, annual or perennial vines. Leaves cordate, undivided 
or lobed. Flowers monoecious or dioecious, yellow or white, the females 
solitary, peduncled, the males solitary or racemose, bracteolate or not. 
Male flowers: Calyx-tube short, campanulate, 5-lobed. Corolla 5-partite 
nearly to the base. Stamens 3, the anthers free, one 1-celled, the other 
two 2-celled. Female flowers similar to the males. Ovary oblong; style 
long; stigmas 8. Fruit globose, or oblong to lanceolate-cylindric, rugose, 
indehiscent or dehiscent. Seeds smooth, wrinkled, or sculptured. (Latin 
“bite,” from the bitten appearance of the seeds.) 
Species about 25, mostly in tropical Asia and Africa, few in America, 3 
or 4 in the Philippines. 
A monoecious slender vine with small fiowers, 12 mm long or less, and 
ee eee) inh wat ala liad eas ar el A RS epee OR ee 1. M. charantia 
A dioecious coarse vine with large flowers 3 to 4 cm long subtended by a 
large bracteole, the fruits large, globose................ 2. M. cochinchinensis 
1. M. CHARANTIA L. Amargoso (Sp.-Fil.); Ampalaya (Tag.); Parria (Il.). 
A scandent, herbaceous, nearly or quite glabrous, annual, herbaceous 
vine, the simple tendrils up to 20 cm in length. Leaves orbicular, 2.5 to 
10 cm in diameter, cut nearly to the base into 5 or 7, oblong-ovate, variously 
toothed and lobed lobes, base cordate. Flowers axillary, long-peduncled, 
’ yellow, the staminate flower about 12 mm long, peduncled, with an orbicular, 
green, about 1 cm long bract at about the middle, the pistillate flowers 
similar to the staminate ones, long-peduncled. Fruit oblong, cylindric, 
from 2 to 3 em-in wild forms, to at least 25 em in length in cultivated 
forms, pointed at both ends, ribbed, rugose. (FI. Filip. pl. 357.) 
In thickets and waste places, fl. all the year, also extensively cultivated 
for its edible fruits which are sold in the Manila markets in all seasons; 
throughout the Philippines, cultivated and wild. Tropics of the world, 
probably of Asiatic origin. 
2. M. cochinchinensis (Lour.) Spreng. Boyoe-boyoe (Tag.); Barbas ba- 
quero (Sp.-Fil.). 
A coarse dioecious vine reaching a length of 15 m, slightly pubescent 
or nearly glabrous, the petioles, bracteoles, and sometimes the basal leaf- 
margins supplied with few large glands. Leaves broadly ovate, 8 to 18 
em long, acuminate, deeply palmately 3-lobed or sometimes entire. Male 
flowers axillary, solitary, pedicelled, the buds enclosed by a large, green, 
inflated bracteole which in inhabited by ants, opening at anthesis, turning 
yellowish. Calyx nearly black, with 5 acuminate lobes, about 2 cm in 
diameter. Petals pale-yellow, oblong or oblong-ovate, 3.5 to 4 cm long, 
three with a large dark-colored blotch at the base. Fruits large, ovoid or 
subglobose, 8 to 12 em in diameter, yellow, roughened with scattered, tuber- 
cle-like spines. Seeds large, flattened, circular. 
In thickets, Pasay, near Fort McKinley, etc., fl. March-June; widely dis- 
tributed in the Philippines. India to southern China and Malaya. 
