CUCURBITACE^E. 



157 



OBSERVE the tendrils, often more or less extra-axillary, 

 regarded as modified leaves of shoots, the internodes of 

 which are undeveloped : the stamens, the anthers of four 

 of which are confluent in two pairs. The anther-cells 

 are remarkably sinuous in Bryony and many other genera 

 of the Order, resembling the letter w . 



The Cucurbitaceae are mostly tropical. Amongst them 

 are several species extensively grown for the sake of their 

 fruits, as the Gourd, Pumpkin, Cucumber, Melon, and 

 Water-Melon. 



The firm outer layer of the pericarp is often hollowed 

 out, as in the Bottle-Gourd (Lagenaria), and used as a 

 domestic utensil, or ornamented with figures burnt upon 

 the surface. The fruit of the Gourd sometimes attains 

 an enormous size: one raised in Norfolk, in 1846, weighed 

 196 pounds. The fibrous inner layer of the pericarp of 

 the Towel-Gourd (Lttjfa cegyptiacd) is used as sponge 

 and gun-wadding. Many species are intensely bitter, 

 and some are dangerously poisonous, as the Colocynth 

 (Citrullus colocynthis) and Squirting Cucumber (Momor- 

 dica Elaterium, L.) ; the latter so called because the 

 fruit, when quite ripe, separates suddenly from the 

 peduncle, and the sides, forcibly contracting, squirt out 

 the contained pulp with considerable force. 



