SICYOS ANGULATUS. 

 STAR-CUCUMBER. 



NATURAL ORDER, CUCURBITACE/E. 



SiCYOS ANGULATUS, Liiinreus. — Stem branching, hairy; leaves roundish, cordate, with an 

 obtuse sinus, five-angled or five-lobed, lobes acuminate, denticulate, female flower much 

 smaller than the male. A weak climbing vine, with long, spiral, branching tendrils. 

 Leaves three to four inches broad, alternale, on long stalks. Flowers whitish, marked with 

 green lines, the barren in long pedunculate racemes. Fruit six lines long, ovate, spinous, 

 eight to ten together in a crowded cluster, each with one large seed. (Wood's Class-Book 

 of Botany. See also Gray's Manical of the Botany of the Northern United States and 

 Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States.) 



HE true artist has a great regard for nature when she 

 pays her respects to him attired in gayly colored rai- 

 ment, and when we handed this plainly dressed individual to 

 Mr. Lunzer, a shade of disappointment clouded his brow. It 

 seemed as if he would like to say, " What can I make of a 

 uniform tint of green ? " But we shall be much mistaken if 

 most of those who examine our plate do not pronounce it one 

 of the most beautiful pictures any of our wild llowers have so 

 far afforded us. It is, indeed, extremely rare that so many 

 elements of beauty are combined in one subject, and especially 

 when the great advantage of brilliant colors is wholly wanting. 

 A considerable amount of strength is expressed in the leaves 

 and in the stems, yet the stem is not so very strong but its 

 gentle curve as it narrows towards the apex harmonizes with 

 elegance. The lower portion of the stem is straight, and this is 

 in excellent harmony with the straight peduncle, straight mid- 

 veins and angles of the leaves ; and yet these alone would have 

 a very stiff appearance but for the timely relief afforded by the 



