118 , CUCURBITACE^. 



1, SICYOS. Linn. — Single-seeded Cucumber. 

 (From the Greek cikvos, cucumber.) 



Flowers monoecious. Sterile Fl. Calyx 5-tootlied ; teeth 

 subulate or minute. Petals 5, all cohering in a tube, at length 

 separating into three parcels. Fertile Fl. Calyx constricted 

 above the ovary, campanulate. Corolla campanulate. Style 

 rather slender. Stigmas 3, thick, obtuse, spreading. Fruit 

 ovate, spiny or hispid, 1 -seeded. 



S. anguhzlus Linn.: leaves roundish-cordate, 5-angled, toothed, sca- 

 brous ; lobes acuminate ; tendrils umbellate ; sterile flowers corymbose- 

 capitate, with the common peduncle long ; fertile ones sessile on a much 

 shorter peduncle. 



Banks of streams. Can. to Car. W. to Miss. June. (1). — A procumbent 

 vine, climbing by 3 — 5-cleft tendrils. Flowers greenish-white, the fertile not half 

 the size of the sterile ones. Fruit small, ovate, prickly. 



Common Single-seeded Cucumber. 



2. ECHINOCYSTIS. Torr. tf- Gr.— Wild Balsam Apple. 



(From the Greek S'x^ivof, prickly, and kvstis a bladder; in allusion to the ap 

 pearance of the fruit.) 



Flowers monoecious. Calyx flattish ; segments 6, filiform- 

 subulate. Corolla 6 -parted, rotate, campanulate. Sterile Fl. 

 Calyx slightly contracted above the ovary. Stamens 3, dia- 

 delphous, short. Fertile Fl. Abortive filaments 3, very 

 small, distinct. Style very short. Stigmas 2, broadly ob- 

 cordate. Fruit globose-ovoid, bristly- echinate, 2-celled, 4- 

 seeded. 



E. lobata Torr. <^ Gr. : Momordica echinata MuU. Sicyos angulata 

 Mich. 



Banks of streams. Can. N. Y. and Penn. W. to IVIiss. July, Aug. (T). — 

 Stem smooth, 10 — 15 feet long, climbing. Leaves large, nearly smooth, with 5 

 deep acuminate sharply denticulate lobes. Flowers white ; the sterile in long 

 compound racemes ; the fertile solitary, or 2 or 3 together. Fruit about as large 

 as a pigeon's egg, covered with short bristly spines. Wild Balsam Apple. 



3. MELOTHRIA. i^mTi.— Creeping Cucumber. 

 Flowers polygamous or monoecious. Sterile Fl. Calyx 

 3 — 5-toothed. Corolla campanulate. Filaments 5, in 3 sets. 

 Fertile Fl. Calyx and corolla as in the sterile. Style 1. 

 Stigmas 3, fimbriate. Fruit 3-ceUed, many-seeded. 



M. pendula Linn. : leaves somewhat reniform, lobed and angled, slightly 

 hispid ; fruit oval, smooth, pendulous. 



Banks of streams. Penn. to Ala. and Louis. June. (1). — A slender vine 

 running over small shrubs and herbs. Stem hairy. Leaves on petioles. Ten- 



