Cucumis.] lxiv. cucurbitace^: (hooker). 547 



Leaves very variable, usually 3-5 in. long, narrow oblong* or oblong- 

 ovate or lanceolate, obtusely sinuate-lobed and denticulate, acute obtuse 

 or retuse with 3 principal nerves, base rounded or cordate, hirsute with 

 appressed sometimes almost silky hairs on both surfaces, more rarely 

 cordate or palmately deeply 3-5-lobed; petioles stout. Tendrils 

 slender. Male fl. : Very variable in size, |-1 in. diameter; peduncles 

 slender, long or short, 1-5-flowered, ebracteate; pedicels slender. 

 Calyx villous, with long soft spreading hairs. Anthers ciliate, con- 

 nective produced into a flat irregular ciliate appendage, not thickened 

 at the tip Female fl. : Solitary. Ovary densely villous with soft 

 spreading hairs. Staminodes minute. Fruit on a stout peduncle, sub- 

 globose, 1J in. diameter, nearly smooth, with a few scattered hairs, 

 mottled green and white ? Seeds very small, £ in. long, broadly ovoid, 

 acute at one end, with a small depression in the disk. 



Lower Guinea. Angola, in sandy thickets, Dr. Welwitsch! 



Mozamb. Distr. Moraniballa and between Tette and the coast, in light soil, Dr. 

 Kirk! 



A very distinct species, at once recognised by its colour and peculiar long subentire 

 leaves. The flowers vary excessively in size, and the males are more paniculate in 

 Kirk's than in Angolan or Natal specimens. The anthers are mure ciliate in the An- 

 gola specimens than in the Natal, and appendages longer and also ciliate. According 

 to Sonder, the fruit is edible and acidulous. 



12. C. longipes, Hook.f. Annual? Monoecious; prostrate, pale 

 green, flaccid, slightly scabrid. Stems slender, angled, scabrid with 

 short stiff aculei. Leaves 2-4 in. long, as in C.Jicifolius, cut deeply 

 into 5—7 obovate rounded toothed lobes, scabrous on both surfaces ; 

 petioles rather long. Tendrils very slender. Male fl. : Peduncles 

 slender, simple or branched at the base. Calyx hispid. Anthers 

 ciliate, connective with a produced flat glandular appendage. Female 

 fl. : Peduncle 2-4 in. stout, hispid. Ovary echinate with short stiff 

 prickles. Staminodes subulate. Berry oblong, 2 in. long, on a stout 

 curved peduncle 3-5 in., rounded at both ends, quite smooth and gla- 

 brous except for a very few small scattered prickles. Seeds very small, 

 \ in. long, elliptic-oblong, pale brown, smooth, margins rounded, not 

 thickened, disk not depressed. 



Lower Guinea. Angola, in thickets, Golungo Alto, Cazengo, on the sea-shore and 

 in and about the town of Loanda, Dr. Welwitsch I 



A very distinct species in fruit, though uudistinguishable in foliage and flowers from 

 C. Anguria, Figarei, &c. 



Welwitsch describes the fruit as tasting like cucumber. 



C.f 8triatus, A. Rich. Fl. Abyss, i. 295, is unknown to me; the leaves are digitately 

 5-partite, fruit the size of a large walnut, smooth, glabrous, with 10 striae ; the flowers 

 are unknown. Schweinfurth (Plant. Nilot. 17) describes the male flower, but does 

 not detail the structure of the stamens, and considers it as possibly a Cucurbita. 



There are various other indeterminable species of Cucumis in the Tropical African 

 collections at Kew ; amongst the principal is the following from sandy shores, Mossa- 

 medes, Lower Guinea, Dr Welwitsch (n. 831). A large green scabrid species, with 

 long stout-petioled hastate cordate acute leaves, 2 in. long and broad, hispidly scabrid 

 on both surfaces ; male flowers, peduncle £ in. diameter ; female larger on slender 

 pedicels ; ovary oblong, densely clothed with silky white hairs. 



