1 66 CUCURBIT ACE^. 



Species about 400, mostly in the warmer parts of the world 

 especially the tropics. The family has been put by many 

 systematists among the Monopetalae, because of the often quite 

 typically monopetalous flower not unlike that of a campanula. 



MELOTHRIA f.b.i. 65 xvii. 



hicliiding ZEHNERIA. F.B.I. 65 XVI. 



Slender and weak stemmed herbs. Flowers small 

 white or yellow, monoecious or dioecious. Male flowers 

 in racemes or corymbs. Calyx campanulate with five 

 short teeth. Corolla deeply five-partite, petals not 

 toothed. Stamens three : anthers usually free, oblong or 

 suborbicular, free. Female flowers solitary, fascicled or 

 corymbose. Calyx and corolla as of the male. Stami- 

 nodes three. Ovary egg-shaped, globose or pear-shaped. 

 Style short, surrounded by an annular disc. Fruit a 

 small berry. Seeds usually margined. 



Species about 40 all in the tropics. 



Very similar to Bryonia White Bryony, Fr. Couleuvree, Ger. Zaunriibe, 

 Black Bryony is quite distinct. 



Mclothria pcrpusilla Cogniaux; F.B.I. as Zehneria 

 hookeriana Am., ii 624, XVI 2 ; Kodai Bryony. 



Stem slender herbaceous : tendrils from one side of 



the leaf-stalks. Leaves angular, sharply lobed. Flowers 



in small corymbs, peduncled in the leaf-axils : pedicel % 



inch ; peduncle /4 to J^ inch : female flowers % inch, 



male flowers 1/5 inch, crowded. Fruit globose, t. 122. 



In thickets and sholas, common on the downs. Pulneys : 

 as high as Kodaikanal and above. Nilgiris : Pykara, Kotagiri. 

 Fyson 328, 1797, 1859, 2940. Bourne i, 32, 947. 



Gen. Dist. Mountains of South India, south-east and central Hima- 

 layas, Assam, Khasia to Sikkim and Nepal. 



I am a little doubtful about the inclusion of our plant in this species. 

 In habit it is more like M . punctata of South Africa. 



Trichosanthcs palmata Roxb. ; F.B.I, ii 606, II I. 

 Remarkable for the long, fimbriate, petals ; may occur at 

 Ootacamund, but belongs to lower levels. Fyson 1359. 



Gen. Dist. Himalayas to Ceylon, Japan and north Australia. 



