Passiflora. | PASSIFLOREZ. 189 
diam. Seeds very numerous, compressed, wrinkled, black.— 
A. Cunn. Precur. n. 524; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 73; Handb. 
N.Z. Fl. 81; Kirk, Students’ Fl. 182. Tetrapathza australis, 
Raoul, Choix, t. 27. 
NortH AND SoutH Istanps: From the North Cape as far south as Banks 
Peninsula, ascending to 2500 ft. Kohia. November—January. 
OrperR XXXI. CUCURBITACEZ. 
Climbing or prostrate herbs. Leaves alternate, exstipulate, 
usually palmately veined or lobed. Tendrils generally present, 
Springing from the sides of the stem near the petioles, simple or 
divided. Flowers moncecious or diecious, solitary or in racemes 
or panicles. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary ; limb campanulate or 
rotate or tubular, 3—5-lobed ; lobes imbricate. Petals 3-5, inserted 
on the calyx-limb, free or united into a lobed corolla, often con- 
fluent with the calyx below. Stamens 3 or 5, inserted on the 
calyx-tube; filaments free or connate into a tube or column; 
anthers free or united, one 1-celled, the others 2-celled; cells often 
long and sinuous. Ovary inferior, usually 1-celled when very 
young, with 5 (rarely 4-5) parietal placentas, which thicken and 
turn inwards, meeting in the axis, so that the ovary becomes 
spuriously 3-6-celled; style simple, entire or 3-fid; ovules 1 or 
more to each placenta. Fruit succulent or coriaceous, indehiscent 
or bursting irregularly. Seeds usually many, generally flat ; albu- 
men wanting; embryo straight, cotyledons large. 
A natural and well-defined order, spread over the tropics and warmer por- 
tions of the temperate zones, nearly absent in cold climates. Genera about 70; 
species nearly 500. The order is mainly important on account of the edible 
fruits which many species produce, as the pumpkin, melon, water-melon, 
cucumber, &c. Others are acrid and purgative, as colocynth and bryony, and 
are used in medicine. ‘The common gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris), the hard-rinded 
fruit of which is so extensively used in the tropics for water-vessels, &c., was 
introduced into New Zealand by the Maoris, and cultivated by them long before 
the advent of Europeans, but is now seldom seen. The sole indigenous genus. 
(Sicyos) occurs in America, the Pacific islands, and Australasia. 
1. SICYOS, Linn. 
Climbing or prostrate herbs. Leaves angular or 3—5-lobed. 
Flowers small, moncecious. Male flowers racemose. Calyx-tube 
broadly campanulate, 5-toothed. Corolla rotate, deeply 5-partite. 
Stamens connate into a short column; anthers 2-5, sessile at the 
top of the column, sinuous; cells confluent. Female flowers capi- 
tate on a short peduncle, rarely solitary. Calyx-tube adnate with 
the ovary; limb and corolla as in the males. Ovary 1-celled; 
style short, 3-fid; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit small, coria- 
ceous, dry, indehiscent, covered with barbed spines. 
A small genus of about 20 species, mainly from tropical America, but 
extending to Australia and the Pacific islands. The single New Zealand 
species has the range of the genus. 
