Cucumis.^ CUCURBITACEAE. 535 



many, horizontal, 011 3 vertical placentas ; style short ; stigmas 3, 

 obtuse ; in <$ flowers pistillode glandular. Fruit a large or small, 

 spherical or elongate, smooth or tuberculate or spinous berry, 

 iiidehiscent. Seeds very many, oblong or elliptic, compressed, 

 usually smooth. 



Fruit smooth, glabrous or pubescent ; leaves suborbicular-reniform, 

 cordate at base ; ovary densely softly villous : 



Annual ; leaves shallowly 5-angled or slightly lobed, softly villous ; 

 cJ flowers in clusters : 

 Fruit ovoid, obtuse at both ends, 1-1-5 in. long ; leaves rather 



small, thick 1 . pubescens. 



Fruit globose ovoid or elongate, large ; leaves large and thin 



. Melo. 

 Perennial ; leaves deeply palmately o-lobed, scabrous ; $ flowers 



usually solitary 2. trigonus. 



Fruit softly spinous ; perennial trailing herb with cinereous very 



scabrid leaves 3. prophetarum. 



Fruit with few scattered tubercular prickles, cylindric, yellowish- 

 green ; $ flowers in fascicles ; leaves with angular lobes sativus. 



1. CUCUMIS PUBESCENS, Willd. ; W. & A. 342; Wt. Ic. t. 496; 

 C. trigonus, Roxb. ; F. B. I. ii. 619, in part. 



E. Coast Districts, on waste ground. 



A climbing or trailing plant, the fruit ovoid, striped dark 



and light green. 



2. CUCUMIS TRIGONUS, Roxb. ; F. B. I. ii. 619, in part ; W. & A. 

 342 ; Wt. Ic. t. 497. 



Deccan and Carnatic, in dry Districts. 



A prostrate plant from a perennial root stock, the fruit 



yellow or yellow with green stripes. 



3. CUCUMIS PROPHETARUM, Linn ; F. B. I. ii. 619 ; W. & A. 342. 



Deccan, in dry Districts, Bellary (Gamble), apparently on 

 black cotton soil. 



A trailing very scabrous plant with subglobose spinous 

 fruit striped green and white. 



Cucumis Melo, Linn., the Melon, is largely cultivated on the 

 sandy beds of rivers when the stream has subsided to its hot 

 season channel. Yern. Hind. Kharboj. 



Cucumis sativus, Linn., the Cucumber, is grown in gardens as 

 a vegetable. Yern. Hind. Khira. 



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