Luffa.] CUCURBITACEAE. . 533 



4. Luff a, Tourn. 



Annual climbing herbs, large or small ; tendrils 2-5-fid. Leaves 

 5-7-lobed, rarely subentire ; petiole not glandular at the apex. 

 Flowers monoecious, yellow or white ; g flowers in racemes, 

 5 flowers solitary, both often from the same axil. CaZt/ar-tube in 

 $ turbinate or campanulate, in $ produced beyond the ovary; 

 lobes 5, triangular or lanceolate. Petals 5, free, spreading, obovate 

 or obcordate. Stamens 3, less often 4 or 5, inserted on the calyx- 

 tube ; filaments free or connate ; anthers exserted, free, 1 1-celled, 

 the others 2-celled, the cells siginoid, often on a broad connective ; 

 in J flowers staminodes 3 or more, thick. Ovary oblong, 1-celled ; 

 ovules many, horizontal, on 3 parietal placentas ; style cylindric ; 

 stigma 3-lobed ; in $ flowers pistillode or glandular. Fruit a 

 large or small oblong or cylindric, smooth or angled or spinous, 

 fibrous berry, usually dehiscing by a circumsciss opening at the 

 top with a stopple. Seeds many, oblong, compressed. 



Stamens 5 ; fruit large, cylindric, 5-12 in. long, smooth, 10-ribbed or 

 somewhat 10 angled ; seeds narrowly winged, smooth on sides ; leaves 

 orbicular-reniform, palmately 5-lobed, scabrous and punctate ; petals 



obtuse .' 1. aegyptiaca. 



Stamens 3 : 



Fruit oblong- cla vat e with 10 sharp angles ; seeds not winged, 

 slightly rugose on the sides ; leaves orbicular-cordate, palmately 



5-7-lobed, scabrous ; petals emarginate 2. acutangula. 



Fruit small, spinous, the spines woolly ; seeds thinly verrucose ; 

 leaves ovate-cordate, slightly 3-5-lobed, scabrous 3. umbellata. 



1. LUFFA AEGYPTIACA, Mill.; F. B. I. ii. 614. L. pentandra, 

 Roxb.; W. & A. 343 ; Wt. Ic. t. 499. 



All plains Districts, especially near the coast, cultivated 

 and run wild, but doubtfully indigenous. 

 A large climbing plant with smooth fruit, edible when 

 young, and when old the fibrous skeleton forms a flesh- 

 brush "loofa." Yern. Hind. Ghia taroi. 



2. LUFFA ACUTANGULA, Roxb. ; F. B. I. ii. 713. L. amara, 

 Roxb. ; W. & A. 343. 



Most plains Districts, especially near the E. Coast, not 



common. 



A climber with angular fruit, and usually (var. amara, 



