624 LXV. CUCUEBITACE^!. (C. B. Clarke.) [Mukia. 



Nearly allied to M. scabrella. Leaves densely softly villose beneath when young 

 and often when old, elongated acute at the apex. Mr. Thwaites says the rudimen- 

 tary pistil in the male flowers is more developed than in M. scabrella and is surrounded 

 at the base with an annulus. 



16. ZEHNERIA, Endl. 



Climbing herbs; tendrils simple. Leaves long- or short-petioled, dentate, 

 angular or deeply lobed, polymorphous. Flowers small, yellowish, monoecious or 

 dioecious, males in a peduncled corymb, females solitary on short peduncles or 

 sometimes subcoryrnbose on a longer peduncle ; bracts or very small. MALE : 

 calyx tubular-campanulate, teeth 5 small ; corolla divided nearly to the base 

 into 5 triangular segments ; stamens 3, inserted low in the calyx-tube, filaments 

 glabrous or hairy (in the same species), anthers free, all 2-celled or (in the 

 same species) one 1-celled : anther-cells curved or (in the same species) flexuose 

 or sigmoid ; connective often papillose at the top, scarcely produced FEMALE : 

 calyx and corolla as in the male ; ovary globose or oblong, glabrous or very 

 hairy; style cylindric, 3-lobed, surrounded at the base by an annular disc; 

 ovules many, horizontal; placentas 3. Fruit succulent, indehiscent, globose 

 ellipsoid or cylindric. Seeds many or few, obovoid rounded or compressed, 

 with or without a margin, faces smooth or somewhat tubercular or pitted. 

 DISTRIB. Species 15 (according to Bth. & Hk. f.) or 5 only ; in tropical Asia, 

 Australia, and Africa, with one species in South America. 



1. Z. Baueriana, Endl. Iconogr. 1. 116, 117 ; leaves cordate acute simple 

 or 3-5-lobed half way down, petiole longer than the auricles, fruit % by f in. 

 when dry reticulate-rugose ellipsoid, seeds much compressed oblong margined 

 smooth or slightly tuberculate on the faces. Z. mucronata, Miq. Fl. Incl. Sat. 

 i. pt. i. 656. Bryonia mucronata, Blume. Bijd. 923. B. mysorensis, Wall. Cat. 

 6702 ; W. $ A. Prodr. 345 ; Wight Ic. t. 758 ; Dalz. $ Gibs. Bomb. Fl. 101. 

 ? B. filiforrnis, Roxl. Fl. Ind. iii. 727. Karivia samoensis, A. Gray in Seem. 

 Fl. Viti 103. 



DECCAN PENINSULA ; Wight Heyne ; Nilghiris, G. Thomson ; Canara, Stocks ; 

 Belgaum, Ritchie. DISTRIB. Malaya, Japan, Norfolk Island, Feejees; but the area 

 cannot be separated from that of the next species. 



Weak, nearly glabrous. Leaves 2 in. diam., generally sharply denticulate ; petiole 

 f in. or short. Flowers frequently monoecious in the same axils, sometimes apparently 

 dioecious ; male peduncle usually 1-2 in., female less than % in., undivided in all the 

 Indian examples, but occasionally the female peduncle is elongate umbellate accord- 

 ing to Wight. Roxburgh's Bryonia filiformis perhaps belongs here, but the ripe 

 fruit is said to be near 1 in. It has been referred to Melothria indica, but the 

 inflorescence is quite unlike that, as are the yellow flowers and stamens of Rox- 

 burgh's picture. 



2. Z. Hooker iana, Am. in Hook. Journ. Bot. iii. 275 ; leaves cordate 

 acute simple or angular or 3-5-lobed half-way down, petiole longer than the 

 auricles, fruit f in. diam. when dry reticulate-rugose globose, seeds much 

 flattened oblong margined smooth or slightly tuberculate on the faces. Kurz 

 in Journ. As. Soc. 1877, pt. ii. 105. Z. exasperata, Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. i. pt. i. 

 655. Z. scabra, Harv. $ Sond. Fl. Cap. ii. 486 ; Bryonia Hookeriana, W. $ A. 

 Prodr. 345. B, cissoides, Wall. Cat. 6698. f B. oxyphylla, Wall. Cat. 6697 

 (no flowers). 



NORTH BENGAL ; common in SIKKIM, ASSAM, KHASTA. and CACHAR, ascending to 

 5000 ft. alt. DECCAN PENINSULA and CEYLON, common ; apparently always in the 

 lower hills. DISTRIB. Ava, Malaya, Africa. 



