to the Rocky Mountains. 243 



petioles which are mostly erect, triangularly cordate, 6-8 inches long-, and 

 4-5 inches broad, scabrous, of a glaucous-green colour, thick and robust; 

 margin sinuate and undulate. Tendrils trichotomous. Flowers monoecious, 

 nearly as large as in Cucurbila pepo. Calyx petaloid, campanulate, ru- 

 gose; exterior divisions subulate. Sterile fl. Stamens 2 ; filaments 

 short and closety cohering, covering the central disk. Fertile fl. Style 

 short, stigmas 3, 2-parted ; germen inferior, subglobose. Pepo as large as 

 an orange, globose, smooth, nearly sessile, about 4-cclled ; dissepiments 

 spongy. Seeds in a double order, ovate ; margin acute." Dr. James. 



Hab. On the arid and sandy wastes along the base of the 

 Rocky Mountains, from the confluence of the Arkansa and 

 Boiling-spring Fork, to the sources of the Red River. 

 Flowers in July, and continues flowering and perfecting fruit 

 during the summer. 



Obs. This plant, by its long and somewhat succulent root, 

 is enabled to thrive in these sandy deserts, where scarcely any 

 other vegetable can exist. It emits a fetid disagreeable odour. 

 The petioles and the extremities of the stems, are usually 

 affected with morbid enlargements resembling galls, but 

 Dr. James never saw any insect feeding on it. 



I have little doubt that this will prove to be the Cucurbita 

 foetidissima of Kunth, which, according to Humboldt, is abun- 

 dant near Guanaxuato in Mexico. Their plant, it is true, is said 

 to be annual, but this maybe a mistake, as it does not appear, 

 by Kunth's account, to have been particularly examined. 

 The Cucumis of Dr. James is undoubtedly perennial, a plant 

 of it having flourished several years in the garden of the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania, where I saw it in 1S24. It was unfor- 

 tunately destroyed before producing flowers, so that it must 

 for the present remain undetermined to what genus it pro- 

 perly belongs. 



