238 CUCURBITACJE. CIRC^A. 



valved, with a single erect seed in each cell, hispid with hooke.l 

 hair&. 



C. Paciflca Asch.&Mag. Mostly glabrous, stems usually simple, 

 6-12 inches high, from a small tuber; leaves ovate, rounded or cordate at 

 base, acute or acuminate, repandly-denticulate, 1-3 inches long; the slen- 

 der petiole about as long; racemes without bracts; flowers half a line long; 

 calyx white with a very short tube; fruit a line long, rather loosely covered 

 with soft hairs curved above, 1-celled, 1-seeded. In damp woods. Brit. 

 Columbia to California. 



C. alpina L. Sp. 9. Glabrous, stems weaK, 3-8 inches high, often 

 branching above: leaves cordate, shining, rather coarsely toothed, 1-6 

 inches long, on slender petioles nearly as long as the blade : pedicels sub- 

 tended by minute setaceous bracts : flowers reddish, especially before 

 opening: fruit pubescent hut scarcely hispid. In damp woods, Alaska to 

 Washington and the Northeastern States and Canada. 



ORDER XXXIX. CUCURBIT ACE^ B. Juss.Hort.Trian.(1759.) 



Tendril- bearing herbs with alternate palmatelj veined leaves 

 and axillary monoecious or dioecious, rarely perfect flowers. 

 Calyx 5-6-toothed, the limb sometimes obsolete. Petals 5-6, 

 distinct or more or less united* with each other and coherent 

 with the calyx. Stamens 5, sometimes distinct, commonly 

 united in three parcels ftwo, and two and one separate,) so as 

 to appear like three stamens only, rarely 3 and diadelphous, fila- 

 ments of each set sometimes connate; anthers usually long and 

 sinuous, or variously contorted or folded, 2-celled, adiiate, ex- 

 trorse, commonly more or less connate. Ovary coherent with the 

 tube of the calyx, usually of 3, rarely of 2 or 4, united carpels, 

 sometimes 1-celled by the obliteration of the partitions, more 

 often with each caipel spuriously 2-celled. Fruit fleshy or 

 juicy, rarely membranous. Seeds a-iatropous, compressed, 

 often enveloped by a juicy or dry and membranous arillus; 

 the testa coriaceous, albumen none. 



MAEAH Kell. Proc. Cal. Acad. i, 38. 

 MEGAREHIZA (Torr.) Watson. 



Flowers monoecious : the sterile in racemes or panicles ; the 

 fertile solitary, from the same axils. Calyx-tube broadly cam- 

 panulate: teeth obsolete or very small. Corolla rotate, deeply 

 5-7-lobed, with oblong papillose segments. Sterile flowers with 

 the stamens at the base: filaments short and connate: anthers 

 free or somewhat adherent ; the cells somewhat horizontal, flex- 

 nous. Pistillate flowers pedicelled : with or without abortive 

 stamens: ovary oblong to globose, usually more or less echinate, 

 2-celled or more: cells 1-several-ovuled : ovules ascending, hori- 

 zontal, or pendulous, the attachment mostly parietal: style 

 short : stigma 2-3 lobed or parted. Fruit mostly echinate, more 

 or less fibrous within, becoming dry, at length bursting regu- 



