182 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
come to the Roses we ought to glance at one or two of 
the flowers that le on our way from one to the other. 
First let us take the White Byrony, which you may see 
sprawling in somewhat parasitic fashion over our hedge- 
rows. Greenish-white flowers, about half an inch across, 
bearing either stamens or pistils, but not both, give rise 
in the latter to handsome red berries in the autumn, 
which are emphatically not edible. It deserves notice, 
not so much for its own importance as because it is 
our only British representative of the great Gourd tribe, 
to which belong all the pumpkins, melons, marrows, and 
cucumbers, and of one of these, the squirting cucumber, 
it is worth while to give some account, for its ingenious 
method of spreading its seeds. The fruit, which is like 
a small cucumber, hangs down the stalk, which projects 
into it and plugs it as a cork plugs a bottle, and keeps 
the seeds safe from harm till they are ripe. While they 
are ripening the cells in the rind are filled with fluid 
until they ardently desire to stretch, but, of course, the 
plug forbids it, for the bottle is full. The pressure goes 
on, and in time all the interior of the cucumber, except 
the seeds, turns to jelly. The plugs begin to do the 
same, and some morning the cucumber drops off, and the 
cork is gone. Now the cells in the rind have their 
chance, and they swell at once most vigorously, forcing 
jelly and seeds through the neck of the bottle in just 
the same way as one can squirt water by pressure from 
an india-rubber ball. 
A nearer approach to the Roses is made by the Willow 
Herbs, of which the Evening Primrose is perhaps the 
best known, though it is rarely found wild. Its large, 
pale-yellow, fragrant flowers only open in the evening, 
in contrast to the ordinary practice, but the reason is 
