214 



CUCURBITACE/E. 



[chap. 



TvPK — Common Gourd, Ciicurbita maxima; or 

 Cucumber, Ciicumis sativus ; or 

 Bottle Gourd, Lagenaria vulgaris ; or 

 Water Melon, Citndliis vulgaris. 

 Annual, creeping, usually rough or hairy herbs, with 

 alternate, palmi-veined and lobed leaves, extra- axillary 

 tendrils, and solitary, axillary, unisexual, regular, yellow 

 or white flowers. 



Observe the tendrils, regarded as modified leaves of 

 axillary or extra-axillary shoots, the internodes 

 of which are undeveloped, the tendril-leaves 

 being reduced as it were to their principal 

 veins, which serve as feelers and hold-fasts : 

 the petals, in some genera free, in others 

 coherent, forming a bell-shaped corolla : the 

 three stamens, the anther of one stamen being 

 one-celled, of the others, two-celled. The 

 anther-cells are remarkably sinuous, being 

 twisted up and down like the letter S. In 

 Cucurbita the anthers are coherent. This 

 ^^SeiXus^s?": very important tropical Family, which in- 

 uousaniherT" cludcs many species cultivated in India, is 



