LXIV. CUCURBITACEjE (HOOKER). 521 



Order LXIV. CUCURBITACEJE. (By Dr. Hooker.) 



Flowers unisexual. Calyx-tube adnate with the ovary ; lobes 5, 

 rarely 3 or 6, imbricate. Petals 5, rarely 3 or 6, free or connate, often 

 confluent with the calyx-tube. Stamens inserted on the calyx-tube, 

 usually 3, one 1-celled, two 2-celled, rarely 2, 3 or 5 ; filaments or 

 free or connate ; anthers extrorse, free or connate, simple or 2-3-fid, cells 

 straight, curved, conduplicate or contorted ; connective broad or narrow, 

 sometimes produced beyond the cells. Ovary usually of 3 confluent carpels 

 with 3 (rarely 1, 2, or 5) double placentas that meet in the axis but bear 

 ovules close to the walls of the cavity, rarely 1— 3-celled with solitary pen- 

 dulous or erect ovules ; style simple or 2-3-fid at the apex ; stigmas as 

 many as placentas, usually large. Ovules horizontal in most genera. 

 Fruit usually a succulent or hard indehiscent many-seeded berry, rarely* 

 dehiscing by valves or irregularly bursting. Seeds of various forms, 

 often imbedded in pulp or with a pulpy outer coat ; testa coriaceous, 

 or crustaceous ; albumen 0. Cotyledons plano-convex sometimes folia- 

 ceous. — Usually climbing perennial-rooted herbs. Leaves alternate, 

 simple or compound, exstipulate, tendrils lateral, solitary, simple or 

 2-oo -fid. Inflorescence various, axillary. Flowers white or yellow, 

 rarely blue or red. Berry usually bitter and nauseous. 



A very difficult Order of plants to describe satisfactorily owing to the separation of 

 the sexes, the necessity of examining flowers and fruit, the difficulty of procuring 

 good specimens, and of analyzing dried ones. Africa presents a large proportion of the 

 known genera (34 out of 68); it also contains the most abnormal genera of the Order, 

 as Telfairia with its curious seeds, the erect Heterosicyos, the singular fruit of Ha- 

 phanocarpus, the dissimilar male and female flowers of Dimorphochlamys, the spiny 

 leafless furze-like Acanthosicyos, the oblique-flowered Momordica anigomntha, and 

 others. The genera are extremely difficult to classify, and the following key is not 

 wholly natural. 



The recorded Tropical African plants of this Order which are unknown to me are — 

 Bryonia convolvuloides, A. Rich. ; B. jatrophcefolia, Rich, (possibly a Citrullus), and 

 B. abyssinica, ?Lam., all included in A. Richard's Flora Abyssinica, i. 289, 290. 



The most remarkable species which I have been unable to determine generically are — 



1. A noble very stout climbing species, (Welwitsch, 818, from Cazengo in Angola). 

 Leaves palmately 7-lobed, gfin. diameter, slightly pubescent, lobes triangular acumi- 

 nate. Tendrils stout, much divided. Male buds crowded in the same axil with the 

 female. Female flower on a long stout peduncle. Ovary narrow-cylindric, 2 in. long. 

 Calyx-lobes lanceolate acuminate Corolla yellow, 3 in. diameter, apparently not deeply 

 lobed. Style columnar, trifid, stigmas broadly reniform. Fruit (immature) cylindric, 

 3 in. long, probably very large when ripe. 



2. A large stout rigid scandent plant, climbing 20 ft. (Cameroons river, Mann), closely 

 allied to Sphcerosicyos, but petioles eglandular. Leaves 5 in. diameter, orbicular-cor- 

 date and palmately 7-angled, obscurely crenate, angles broad, rounded or acute, the 

 terminal acuminate, rather coriaceous, olive brown when dry, obscurely puberulous 

 beneath, with the veins excessively reticulated, petioles stout. Tendrils stout, divided. 

 Male raceme long, many-flowered ; peduncle 6-10-in. long, stout, pubescent, pedicels 

 stout, often divided. Calyx-tube slender, f in. long, contracted above the middle, 

 limb obconic with 5 short distant subulate teeth. Corolla 2 in. diameter, yellow ; petals 

 obovate-spathulate. Stamens on t ho mouth of the calyx-tube ; filaments stout ; anther- 

 cells flexuous round a broad connective. 



