GOURD FAMILY 1 89 



some points on the south-west coast. — Fl. July — September. 

 Biennial. 



4. Circ.4a (Enchanter's Nightshade). — Slender, erect herbs 

 with creeping rhizomes ; leaves opposite, stalked, toothed ; 

 Jloivers in racemes, small, white, 2-merous ; sepals reflexed, 

 deciduous ; style slender ; stigma 2-lobed ; ovules i or 2 ; fruit 

 indehiscent, covered with hooked bristles. (Name from Circe, 

 the enchantress who bewitched Ulysses and his companions.) 



1. C. luteiidna (Common Enchanter's Nightshade). — A 

 slender herbaceous plant, pubescent with glandular hairs, i — 2 

 feet high, with round-stalked, ovate, spreading, dull leaves^ and 

 loose terminal and lateral racemes of minute \i\{\'iQ^ flowers^ with 

 pink stame?is, succeeded by 2-lobed hristXy fruits. — Damp shady 

 places ; common, often a troublesome weed in damp gardens. — 

 Fl. June— August. Perennial. 



2. C. alpijia (Alpine Enchanter's Nightshade). — Closely re- 

 sembling the last, but smaller, not exceeding 8 in. in height, 

 less hairy, less branched ; leaves cordate, shining, more deeply- 

 toothed, and with flat stalks. They are so delicate as to be 

 nearly transparent when dried. The fruit is less bristly and i- 

 seeded. — Mountainous woods in the north. — Fl. July, August. 

 Perennial. 



Ord. XXXII r. CucuRBiTACE.t. — The Gourd Family 



A large and important Order, chiefly tropical, but having only 

 one British representative. They are herbaceous plants with juicy 

 stems, climbing by means of tendrils ; scattered, exstipulate leaves 

 which are usually lobed and rough; pentamerousyZ^ze'^r.f which 

 are often large, yellow, red, or white, and imperfect ; and fruit 

 either a berry or a gourd (pepo), horny externally when ripe. 

 The calyx is superior and 5-toothed ; the corolla so united to the 

 calyx-tube as to be sometimes scarcely distinguishable ; the 5, 

 more or less united, stamens, with twisted afithe?'s, in distinct 

 flowers from the i-chambered ovary of 3 united carpels, either on 

 the same plant (monoecious) or on different plants (dioecious). 

 The style is short, the stigmas are thick, lobed and velvety, and 

 the seeds flat. A great number of species are cultivated in Europe 

 either for use or ornament. Many of them are bitter and violent 

 purgatives, of which the common medicinal Colocynth {Citnillus 

 Colocynthis) is an example. This species bears an oval fruit of a 

 very bitter taste, and grows in sandy and desert, places. It is 

 almost certainly the wild cucumber mentioned in 2 Kings iv. 39, 

 40, as it still grows in profusion at Gilgal, and as its leaves, ten- 



