222 FOUNDATIONS OF BOTANY 
I. CUCURBITA, L. 
Annual or perennial herbs; stem trailing or climbing, 2-20 
ft. long. Leaves angular-lobed; tendrils branching. Flowers 
moncecious, solitary or in small clusters. Calyx 5-toothed, the 
limb deciduous. Corolla bell-shaped, 5-lobed. Staminate flowers 
with 3 stamens and no pistil; pistillate flowers with 1 pistil 
and 3 imperfect stamens. Style short; stigmas 3—5, each 
2-lobed. Fruit 1-celled, with numerous seeds on the 3 parietal © 
placentze.* 
1. C. Melopepo, L. SummeER Squasu. Stem rough-hairy, angled, 
2-5 ft. long. Leaves broadly heart-shaped, angularly 3-5-lobed, 
rough. Flowers yellow, short-peduncled. Fruit roundish, longitudi- 
nally compressed, the margin smooth, wavy, or tubercular. Common 
in cultivation.* 
2. C. verrucosa, L. Crookneck Squasu. Stem rough-hairy, 
angled and striate, 5-10 ft. long. Leaves cordate, deeply 5-lobed, 
very rough, long-petioled. Flowers light yellow, long-peduncled. 
Fruit clavate, the base often slender and curved, smooth or tubercu- 
late, very variable. Common in cultivation.* 
II. CUCUMIS, L. 
Annual herbs; stems trailing, usually shorter and more 
slender than in the preceding genus. Tendrils not forked. 
Leaves varying from entire or nearly so to deeply cut. Sterile 
flowers in clusters, fertile ones solitary in the leaf-axils. 
Corolla of 5 acute petals, which are but little joined at the 
base. Stamens not evidently united. Style short; stigmas 3, 
each 2-lobed. Fruit rather long. Seeds not large, lance- 
oblong, not margined. 
1. C. sativus, L. CucumBer. Leaves somewhat lobed, the 
middle lobe largest. Fruit more or less covered when young with 
rather brittle, blackish prickles, which fall off as it ripens. Culti- 
vated from S. Asia. [Other varieties of the genus Cucumis are the 
muskmelon, cantaloupe, and nutmeg melon. Other commonly 
cultivated genera are Citrullus, the watermelon, and Lagenaria, the 
bottle-gourd. Two wild genera, Echinocystis, the wild cucumber, 
and Sicyos, the star cucumber, which blossom through the summer 
and autumn, are common in the Northern States and the Middle 
West. ] 
