Lvffa.} LXIV. CUCURBITACE^E (HOOKER). 531 



3. L. echinata, Roxb. ; Fl. Ind. iii. 716. Dioecious. Stem 5-angled, 

 slightly hairy. Leaves 2-4 in. broad, orbicular-reniform, 5-7-lobed 

 to about the middle, basal sinus very broad and open, slightly pubes- 

 cent and scabrid, lobes broad, obtuse, with shallow teeth or crena- 

 tures ; petioles rather slender, angled Tendrils 2-fid. Male peduncles 

 longer than the leaves, few-flowered ; bracteoles minute ; buds downy. 

 Calyx-lobes J in. long. Corolla 1 in. in diameter; yellow. — Female fl. : 

 1-3 together : peduncle short, stout. Ovary ovoid, densely hispid. 

 Fruit f-1 in. long, ovoid or subglobose, terminated by the stout, 

 woody, columnar style ; apex conical, grooved, naked, the rest densely 

 covered with scabrid, spreading, soft, ciliate spines, that harden when 

 dry j interior full of spongy iibrous tissue. Seeds black, numerous, 

 ovoid, compressed, margins rounded, testa granulate, crustaceous. — 

 Momordica echinocarpa, Fenzl in Kotschy's PI. Nub. No. 1*22. 



Nile Land. Nubia, Kotschy! Nile.lat. 16°, N. Grant! White Nile, PethericTc. 



I find no difference between the Indian and African plants. Roxburgh describes the 

 flowers as white, which they are not in Indian specimens, and does not allude to the 

 spreading cilia on the spines of the fruit ; his L. Bindall is the same plant with the 

 spines described as ciliate.* The peduncle of the female flower varies much in length. 



8. ACANTHOSICYOS, Welw. ; Benth. et Hook. f. 

 Gen. Plant, i. 824. 



Dioecious ? Male fl. : Solitary or fascicled. Calyx-tube turbinate ; 

 lobes 5, short, unequal, very coriaceous with horny tips. Petals 5, 

 very coriaceous, grooved. Filaments short, free, inserted on the 

 mouth of the calyx; anthers exserted, one 1-celled, two 2-celled ; cells 

 flexuous, bordering the dilated connective. Rudiment of ovary 0. 

 Female fl. : Not seen. Fruit globose, hard. Seeds many, oblong, 

 tumid ; testa thick, hard. — An erect, furze-like, spinous shrub, branched 

 from the base. Leaves seen in young plants only, spathulate, in the 

 angles between the geminate spines. Tendrils 0. Flowers yellow. 



1. A. horrida, Welw. in Trans. Linn. Soc\ xxvii. 31. Adult plant 

 2-3 ft. or occasionally 5 ft. or taller, intricately divaricately branched, 

 deeply sulcate. Leaves squamiform, ovate, crustaceous, scarcely 1 line 

 long, with a pair of straig'ht, subulate, J in. spines from each side at 

 the base. Flowering branches 2—5 in. long, suberect, tomentose ; 

 flowers subsessile, solitary, or fascicled between geminate spines. 

 Calyx tomentose, lobes usually unequal. Petals subconnate below, 

 broadly ovate, smooth and striate within. Fruit as large or larger 

 than an orange, globose, edible, with a smooth or distantly verrucose 

 rind 1 line thick. 



Lower Guinea. Mossamedes, Dr. Welimtsch. Also in Namaqualand and the 

 interior from Whalfish Bay, Anderson, Raines and Chapman. 



Description of species taken from Dr. Welwitsch's Memoir. 



•'•- The third volume of Roxburgh's Flora Indica was posthumously published, and the 

 same plant is repeatedly named and described twice, from the intercalation of mss. of 

 different periods by the editor. 



