532 LXIl. CUCURBlTACE.l. 



Stamens 5. 



Seeds winged, usually smooth 1. L. cegyptiaca. 



Stamens 3. 



Fruit lO-i'ibbed (not ecliinate) ; seeds rugose, wingless 2. L. acutangula. 



Fruit echinate ; seeds sliglitly verrucose, wingless 3. L. cchinata. 



1. Iju£Fa segyptiaca. Mill. Diet. ed. 8 (1768). Monoecious, clirab- 

 iug to a cousiderable height ; stems stout, 5-angled, twisted, glabrous 

 or slightly pubescent, often scabrous at the angles. Tendrils usually 

 3-fid. Leaves orbicular-reniform in outline, 4-8 in. long, often broader 

 than long, palmately 5- (rarely 7-) lobed, the lobes acute or acuminate, 

 lobulate and distantly denticulate, both surfaces finely scabrous, punc- 

 tate, glabrous except the pubescent nerves beneath, base deeply cordate ; 

 petioles 1— i in. long, angular, slightly scabrous. Male flowers in 

 axillary 4-20-tio\vered racemes, usually crowded near the top of the 

 raceme ; peduncles 4-0 in. long : pedicels ^-h in. long, pubescent, arti- 

 culated near the apex, each bearing a small lanceolate glandular bract 

 at or, more commonly, a little above its base ; buds ovoid, pointed. 

 Calyx pubescent, ^ in. long ; lobes lanceolate, acute, h in- long. Petals 

 spreading, 1 in. long, obovate-oblong, yellow with green veins. Stamens 

 5, distinct. Female plowers solitary, usually from the same axils as 

 the males ; peduncles stout, 1-3 in. long. Staminodes usually 5. Ovary 

 cylindric-oblong, glabrous or pubescent. Fruit 5-12 in. long, cyhndric 

 or somewhat trigonous, blunt at the end, marked with longitudinal 

 lines. Seeds black or grey, | by | in., much compressed, narrowly 

 winged, smooth or slightly tuberculate. Fl. E. I. v. 2, p. 614 : Trim. 

 Fl. Ceyl. V. 2, p. 251 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 11 (1898) 

 p. 640 ; AVatt, Diet. Econ. Prod. v. 5, p. 96. Luffa jjentandra, 'Roxh. 

 Hort. Beng. p. 70 ; Grab. Cat. p. 77 ; Dalz. & Gibs. Suppl. p. 36 ; Wight, 

 Icon. t. 499. — Flowers : June-Sept. Vern. Ghosdle ; Ghiyd-turai. 



Verj' common in native gardens and sometimes as an escape, but scarcely to be 

 regai'ded as a wild plant. The young fruit is eaten as a vegetable, and, as Mr. C. B. 

 Clarke points out (Fl. B. I. 1. c), being the only part attended to in cultivation is 

 hence too variable to afford good diagnostic characters. The seeds are used medicinally 

 and the fibrous network in the fruit employed as a flesh-brush. 



2. IjufFa acutangula, Roxh. Hort. Beng. (1814) p. 70. Monoecious, 

 climbing to a considerable height ; stems 5-angled, glabrous, with sharp 

 ant^les which are often scabrid. Tendrils usually 3-tid. Leaves orbi- 

 cular in outline, pale green, 6-8 in. long and broad, palmately 5-7-angled 

 or sublobate, scabrid on both sides, base cordate ; nerves and veins pro- 

 minent beneath ; petioles 2-5 in. long, angular, scabrid. Male flowers 

 in axillary 12-20-flowered racemes 4-6 in. long. Calyx pubescent, 

 k in. long ; lobes lanceolate, | in. long. Petals | in. long, spreading, 

 obovate, yellow with green hairy veins. Stamens 3. Female flowers 

 solitary, in the same axils as the males ; peduncles 2-4 in. long. Ovary 

 strongly ribbed. Fruit 6-12 in. long, clavate-oblong, tapering towards the 

 base, very obtuse, smooth, longitudinally ribbed (almost winged) with 

 10 sharp angles. Seeds h by |-g in., ovoid-oblong, much compressed, 

 slightly corrugated on the sides, not winged, black. 



Very closely allied to L. cegyptiaca, from which it differs in the 

 number of stamens, the strongly ribbed ovary, the fruit, and the seeds. 

 Fl. B. I. v. 2, p. 615 ; Grab. Cat. p. 77 ; Dalz. & Gibs. Suppl. p. 36 ; 



