CICUUBITACK.I^:. ((iOlKI) FAMILY.) lOo 



5 or usually 2^ stamens (i. e., 1 with a l-cellcd an«l 2 with 2-celled anthers) 

 commonly united by their often tortuous anthers, and sometimes also by the 

 filaments. Fruit (pcpo) Jleshy, or sometimes membranaceous. — Limb of 

 the calyx and corolla usually more or less combined. Stigmas 2 or 3. 

 Seeds large, usually flat, anatro{)ous, with no alliinm-n. Cotyledons leaf- 

 like. Leaves alternate, palniately lobed or veined. — Mostly a tropical 

 or subtropical order; represented in cultivation by the Goukd (Lagk- 

 NARiA vulgaris), Pumprin and Squasu (species of Clcurbita), Ml'sk- 

 MELON (CucuMis Melo), Cucumber (C. satItos), and Watermelon 



(CiTKULLUS vulgaris). 



* Fruit prickly. Seeds few, erect or pendulous. Flowers white. AnnuaL 

 ■*- Ovary 1 -celled. Seed solitary, pendulous. 



1. Sicyos. Corolla of the sterile flowers flat and spreading, 5-Iobed. Fruit indehiscent. 



■*- •»- Ovary 2-3-celled. Seeds few, erect or ascending. 



2. Echinocystis. Corolla of the sterile flowers flat and spreading, 6-parted. Anthers 3. 



Fruit bladdery, 2-celled, 4-seeded, bursting at the top. 



3. Cyclanthera. Corolla 5-parted. Anther 1, annular. Fruit oblique and gibbous. 



• * Fruit smooth. Seeds numerous, horizontal, attached to the 3-5 j^arietal placentae. 



Perennial. 



4. Melothiia. Flowers small, greenish ; corolla 5-parted. Slender, climbing. Fruit small, 



5. Cucurbita. Flowers large, yellow, tubular-campanulate. Prostrate. Fruit large. 



1. SICYOS, L. One-seeded Bur-Cuccmber. 



Flowers monoecious. Petals 5, united below into a bell-shaped or flattish 

 corolla. Anthers cohering in a mass. Ovary 1 -celled, with a single suspended 

 ovule ; style slender ; stigmas 3. Fruit ovate, dry and indehi.scent, filled by 

 the single seed, covered with barbed prickly l)ristles which are readily detached. 

 — Climbing annuals, with 3-forked tendrils, and small whitish flowers; the 

 sterile and fertile mostly from the same axils, the former corymbed, the latter 

 in a capitate cluster, long-peduncled. (Greek name for the Cucumber.) 



1. S. angul^tus, L. Leaves roundish heart-shaped, 5-angled or lobed, 

 the lobes pointed; plant clammy-hairy. — River-banks, and a weed in damp 

 yards, N. H. and Quebec to Fla., west to Minn., E. Kan., and Tex. July - Sept. 



2. ECHINOCYSTIS, Torr. & Gray. Wild Balsam-aitle. 



Flowers monoecious. Petals 6, lanceolate, united at the base into an open 

 spreading corolla. Anthers more or less united. Ovary 2-cclled, with 2 erect 

 ovules in each cell; stigma broad. Fruit fleshy, at length dry, clothed with 

 weak prickles, bursting at the summit, 2-celled, 4-soeded, the inner part fibrous- 

 netted. Seeds large, flat, with a thickish hard and roughened coat. — Tall 

 clim])ing annual, nearly smooth, with 3-forked tendrils, tliin leaves, and very 

 numerous small greenish-white flowers ; the sterile in compound racemes often 

 1° long, the fertile in small clusters or solitary, from the same axils. (Name 

 composed of ix^vos, n /if'df/dioi/, and kvo-tis, <i hlndder, froui the prickly fruit.) 



1 E. lob^ta, Torr. & Gray. Leaves deeply and sharply .'> lobed ; fruit 

 oval (2' long) ; seeds dark-colored. — Kich soil along rivers, W. New Kng and 

 Peun to iNlinn., E. Kan., and Tex. Also cult, for arbors. July -Oct. 



