536 FLORA OF MADRAS. [Citrullus. 



7. Citrullus, Neck. 



Trailing herbs, hispid or scabrous ; tendrils 2-3-fid. Leaves 

 triangular-ovate, deeply 3-5-lobed, the midlobe elongate, all 

 sinuately pinnatifid. Flowers monoecious, yellow, both $ and $ 

 solitary, rather large. Calyx-tube broadly campanulate, lobes 5. 

 Corolla usually rotate, the petals ovate or obovate, obtuse or 

 emarginate. Stamens 3 ; filaments short, free ; anthers free or 

 slightly cohering, 1 1-celled, 2 2-celled, the cells linear flexuous, 

 the connective not produced ; in $ flowers staminodes 3, setiform 

 or ligulate. Ovary ovoid, 1-celled ; ovules many on 3 vertical 

 placentas ; style short ; stigmas 3, thick, renif orm ; in $ flowers 

 pistillode glandular. Fruit a globose or oblong fleshy, or dry, 

 indehiscent berry. Seeds very many, elliptic-oblong, compressed, 

 smooth. 



Perennial ; fruit globose, up to 3 in. in diam., very bitter ; leaf -lobes 



narrow, thick 1. Colocynthis. 



Annual; fruit oblong or ellipsoid, up to 10 in. in diam., edible; leaf- 

 lobes broad, thin vulgaris. 



CITRULLUS COLOCYNTHIS, Schrad.; F. B. I. ii. 620; Wt. Ic. 



t. 498. Cucumis Colocynthis, Linn.; W. & A. 342. 

 Deccan, on dry sandy or stony lands. 



A trailing scabrid herb with much cut leaves and globular 

 fruit variegated dark-green and white, the pulp of which 

 affords an important purgative medicine. Yern. Hind. 

 Indrawan ; Tel. Patsa kaya. 



C. vulgaris, Schrad., is the Water Melon, sometimes grown on 

 the sandy beds of rivers for its refreshing fruit. It comes from 

 Tropical Africa. Yern. Hind. Tarbuj. 



8. Coccinia, W. & A. 



Slender scandent or prostrate herbs ; roots sometimes tuberous ; 

 tendrils simple. Leaves petiolate, deltoid or subrotund, angled 

 or lobed, sometimes glandular beneath. Flowers rather large, 

 white or yellow, dioecious, <$ solitary or subcymose, ? solitary. 

 Calyx-tube campanulate, short ; lobes 5. Corolla campanulate, 

 shortly 5 -fid. Stamens 3 ; filaments connate in a column, rarely 

 free ; anthers connate, 1 1-celled, 2 2-celled, cells conduplicate ; 

 in $ flowers staminodes 3, oblong or subulate. Ovary ovoid, 



