158 GOURD FAMILY. 



H- Leaves paJmate/ij lohed : flower widely spreading. 



P. gracilis. Slender herb, with roundish and slightly 3-lobed otherwise 

 entire leaves, and whitish merely f>-dcft flower only 1' in diameter, destitute of 

 true petals. Recently introduced, remarkable for the quick movement of its 

 tendrils, (i) 



P. CSerulea, the COMMON or BLUK PAPSIOX-FLOWKR ; with leaves very 

 deeply cleft or parted into 5 or 7 lance-oblong entire divisions, pale ; and flower 

 almost white, except the purple centre and blue crown banded with whitish in 

 the middle. 



P. edlllis, GBAHADILLA ; the purplish edible fruit as larjre as a goose-egg : 

 leaves dark green and glossy, deeply cleft into 3 ovate pointed lobes beset with 

 callous teeth ; bracts under the flower also toothed ; the crown crisped, 2' across, 

 whitish with a blue or violet base, as long as the white petals. 



*- *- Leaves entire, feather-veined : flower bell -shaped. 



P. quadrangularis, LARGE GBANADILLA. Very large, with the branches 

 4 -sided and the angles wing-margined; leaves 4' -8' long, ovate or oval, or 

 slightly heart-shaped, bright green, with 2-4 pairs of glands on the petiole ; 

 flower about 3' long, fragrant, crimson-purple and the violet or blue crown 

 variegated with white. Fruit rarely formed here, edible, 6' long. 



52. CUCURBITACE.SI, GOURD FAMILY. 



Mostly tendril-bearing herbs with succulent but not fleshy herb- 

 age, watery juice, alternate palmately ribbed and mostly lobed or 

 angled leaves, monoecious or sometimes dioecious flowers ; the calyx 

 coherent with the ovary, corolla more commonly monopetalous, 

 and stamens usually 3, of which one has a 1 -celled, the others 

 2-celled anthers; but the anthers are commonly tortuous and often 

 all combined in a head, and the filaments sometimes all united in 

 a tube or column. Fruit usually fleshy. Embryo large, filliiio; the 

 seed, straight, mostly with flat or leaf-like cotyledons. Besides 

 those here described, there are occasionally cultivated for curiosity 

 the following annuals : 



MOMORDICA ELATERIUM or ECBALIUM AGRE'STE, the SQUIRT- 

 ING CUCUMBER, a homely hairy herb without tendrils, and pro- 

 ducing an oblong hairy pulpy fruit (of violently purgative qualities), 

 which when ripe bursts suddenly at the touch, and discharges the 

 contents \vi h violence (whence the name Ecbalium). 



TKICIIOSANTIIKS COLUBRINA, SNAKE-CUCUMBER or VEGE- 

 TABLE SERPENT, a tall climber with the staminate flowers orna- 

 mental, the lobes of the white corolla being cut into a lace-like 

 Cringe of long and very delicate capillary lobes (whence the name 

 of the genus), and the fruit very like a snake, 3 or 4 feet long, 

 green and striped, turning red when ripe. 



1. Flowers larr/e or middle-sized, on separate simple peduncles in the axils: anthers 

 rcith lout/ mid narrow cells, bent n/> owl doirn or contorted: ovules nnd stedt 

 many, horizontal, on mostly 3 simple or double placenta; : fruit (of the tort 

 calltd a pepo) Inryt, Jlexliy'or pulpy with a harder rind. 



* Both lei nds ofjltuccrs solitary in the axils. 



1. LAGENAKIA. Tendrils 2-forked. Flowers inusk-<cente 1, with a funnel-form 

 or bell-shaped c:ilyx-tnli<>, and 5 nbcon'site. or obovafc and inncroiiMte white 

 petals; the sterile on :i long, the fertile o'i a shorter peduncle. Anthers lightly 

 cohering with each other. Stigmas 3, each 2-lol>ed. Fruit with a hard or 

 woody rind and soft flesh. Seeds margined. Petiole bearing a pair of glands 

 at the apex. 



