PLATE 516. 



MOMORDIOA INVOLTJOBATA, E. MET. (Fl. Cap. Vol. II, p. 491.) 

 Natural Order, CUCURBITAOE^, 



An herbaceous glabrous climber, bearing flowers which are cream coloured 

 with dark centre, and bright scarlet fruit. Stems slender, much branched. 

 Leaves alternate, petiolate, almost orbicular in general outline, palmately deeply 

 5-lobed, deeply cordate at base, the main sinuses deep and rounded, the lobes 

 sinuate-dentate, the teeth mucronulate, the whole leaf 1 to 2^ inches long and 

 broad, membranous, dark green and dull above, lighter and shining beneath, with 

 prominent veins and veinlets, petiole 1 to 1J inch long, channelled above, convex 

 beneath, tendrils capillary, simple, up to 6 inches long. Inflorescence monoecious, 

 flowers solitary, axillary, pedunculate. Male flowers solitary in the upper axils, 

 peduncles 1 to 4 inches long, slender ; bract orbicular, white with green veins, 

 ^ to 1 inch diameter, flower sessile in the bract, I to 2 inches diameter. Calyx 

 5-lobed, lobes orbicular, dark coloured, almost black at base, veiny; corolla 

 5-parted, two of the lobes pale yellow without markings, the other three dull 

 dark green at base, the dark colour extending along the veins for a third of the 

 length of the lobe. Stamens 3, free, filaments glandular at base, anthers cohering, 

 one 1 -celled, two 2-celled; flexuous, glandular on the back, the glands pear shaped 

 and apiculate. Female flowers few, axillary, peduncles shorter than the male, 

 bracteate a little above the base, green, smaller than in the male. Calyx tube (or 

 ovary) flask-shaped, muricate, lobes small, triangular, acute ; corolla smaller than 

 in the male, pale yellow, veiny, lobes obovate, emarginate, midvein produced as a 

 mucro, one or more of the lobes with a dark spot at base. Fruit 2 inches long, 

 oblong but tapering to a blunt apex, scarlet, fleshy tubercular. Seeds covered 

 with a scarlet arillus, the testa brown, 4 lines by 2-J lines, the margin grooved, the 

 edges roughened, surface marked with a raised oblong ridge. 



Habitat: NATAL only: Drege; Krauss ; Gueinzius ; near Verulam 250 feet, 

 September, Wood 655 ; near Durban, February, Wood 1 1 093. 



The genus Momordica includes some 25 to 30 species mostly African ; in 

 Natal we have 5 species, one is probably introduced, and M. involucrata the most 

 common; it is a very ornamental plant especially when in fruit. It was introduced 

 into England by Mr. Thos. Cooper about 1867, and was successfully cultivated by 

 the late W. Wilson Saunders, F.R.S., who described and figured it in his 

 " Kefugium." It was figured in the Botanical Magazine for 1886 from a plant 

 which flowered in the " Water Lily House " at Kew, " forming a very attractive 

 feature in the House." The generic name is from mordeo, to bite, "the seeds 

 having the appearance of having been bitten;" this however, is uot evident in the 

 seeds of M. involucrata. 



Fig. 1 , female flower, petals removed ; 2, petal ; 3, cross section of ovary ; 4, 

 longitudinal section of immature fruit ; 5, seed ; 6, same, aril removed ; 7, male 

 flower, petals removed ; 8, stamen ; fig. 4, natural size, remainder enlarged. 



