420 EXOGENOUS OR DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



Seeds numerous, with a brittle sculptured testa, inclosed in pulp. 

 Embryo inclosed in thin, fleshy albumen. .Ex. Passiflora (the 

 Passion-flower, Granadilla) : nearly all natives of tropical Amer- 

 ica. Two species are found as far north as Virginia and Ohio. 

 Many are cultivated for their singular and showy flowers. The 

 acidulous refrigerant pulp of Passiflora quadrangularis (the Grana- 

 dilla), P. edulis, and others, is eaten in the West Indies, &c. But 

 the roots are emetic, narcotic, and poisonous. They contain a 

 principle resembling morphine, which, in some species, extends 

 even to the flowers and fruit. 



792. Ord, Papayaceffi comprises merely a small genus of tropical 

 dioecious trees, of peculiar character : the principal one is the Pa- 

 paw-tree (Carica Papaya) of tropical America, which has been 

 introduced into East Florida. The fruit, when cooked, is eatable ; 

 but the juice of the unripe fruit, as well as of other parts of the 

 plant, is a powerful vermifuge. The juice contains so much fibrine 

 that it has an extraordinary resemblance to animal matter : meat 

 washed in water impregnated with this juice is rendered tender ; 

 even the exhalations from the tree produce the same effect upon 

 meat suspended among the leaves. 



793. Ord, CllCtirbitacea; (the Gourd Family). Juicy herbs, climb- 

 ing by tendrils; with alternate, palmately veined or lobed, rough 

 leaves, and monoecious or dioecious flowers. Calyx of four or five 

 (rarely six) sepals, united into a tube, and in the fertile flowers 

 adherent to the ovary. Petals as many as the sepals, commonly 

 more or less united into a monopetalous corolla, which coheres 

 with the calyx. Stamens five or three, inserted into the base of 

 the corolla or calyx, either distinct or variously united by their fila- 

 ments, and long, sinuous or contorted anthers. Ovary two to five- 

 celled (rarely one-celled by obliteration, and even one-ovuled) ; 

 the thick and fleshy placentae often filling the cells, or diverging 

 before or after reaching the axis and carried back so as to reach 

 the walls of the pericarp, sometimes manifestly parietal ; the dis- 

 sepiments often disappearing during its growth : stigmas thick, 

 dilated or fringed. Fruit (pepo, 613) usually fleshy, with a hard 

 rind, sometimes membranous. Seeds mostly flat, with no albu- 

 men. Embryo straight. Cotyledons foliaceous. Ex. The Pump- 

 kin and Squash (Cucurbita), Gourd, Cucumber, and Melon. When 

 the acrid principle which prevails throughout the order is greatly 

 diffused, the fruits are eatable and sometimes delicious : when con- 



