CUCURBITACEAE. 425 



Flowers all expanded into rays (ligulate) : juice milky. Fam. 4. Cichoriaceae. 

 Flowers all tubular, or the outer expanded into rays ; 

 juice very rarely milky. 

 Stamens distinct, or nearly so. Fam. 5. Ambrosiaceae. 



Stamens united by their anthers into a tube 



around the style. Fam. 6. Carduaceae. 



Family 1. CUCURBITACEAE B. Juss. 



Gourd Family. 



Herbaceous vines, usually with tendrils. Leaves alternate, petioled, 

 general^ palmately lobed or dissected. Flowers mona?eious or dioecious. 

 Calyx-tube adnate to the ovaiy, its limb usually 5-lobed, the lobes imbri- 

 cated. Petals usually 5, inserted on the limb of the calyx, separate, or 

 united into a gamopetalous corolla. Stamens mostly 3 (sometimes 1), 2 of 

 them with 2-celled anthers, the other with a 1-celled anther; filaments short, 

 often somewhat monadelphous. Ovary 1-3-celled; style terminal, simple, 

 or lobed ; ovules anatropous. Fruit a pepo, indehiscent, or rarely dehiscent 

 at the summit, or bursting irregularly; or sometimes dry and membranous. 

 Seeds usually flat; endosperm none. About 90 genera and 700 species, 

 mainly of tropical regions. 



Ovules horizontal. 



Anther-sacs flexuous. 1. Momordica. 

 Anther-sacs straight or curved, not flexuous. 



Stamens 3 ; an annular disk at the base of the style. 2. Melothria. 



Stamens 2 ; disk none, or obscure. 3. Anguria. 



Ovules ascending. 4. Cayaponia. 



1. MOMORDICA L. Sp. PI. 1009. 1753. 

 Herbaceous, climbing or prostrate vines, with simple or forked tendrils, 

 and dioecious or monoecious mostly yellow flowers, the staminate solitary or 

 clustered, the pistillate solitary. Staminate flowers with a 5-lobed calyx, a nearly 

 rotate, 5-parted or 5-lobed corolla, and usually 3 stamens with short distinct 

 filaments. Pistillate flowers with calyx and corolla like those of the staminate, 

 a 1-celled ovary with 3-placentae, the numerous ovules horizontal, the style 

 slender, the stigmas 3. Fruit ovoid to cylindric, 3-valved or indehiscent. 

 [Latin, of uncertain application.] About 25 species, natives of the Old World 

 tropics. Type species: Momordica Balsamina L. 



1. Momordica Charantia L. Sp. PI. 1009. 1753. 



Stem slender, more or less pubescent^ 1-2 m. long, with simple filiform 

 tendrils opposite the leaves. Leaves thin^ reniform or suborbicular in outline, 

 4-12 cm. broad;, deeply pedately 5-7-lobed, glabrate or pubescent, the lobes 

 dentate, acute or obtuse, the slender petioles 3-6 cm. long; peduncles with an 

 ovate entire cordate bract at or below the middle; sepals oval or ovate, 3-4.5 

 mm. long; corolla-segments obtuse or emarginate, L5-2 cm. long, yellow; 

 fruit ovoid or oblong, bright yellow, tubercled, 2-12 cm. long; seeds flat, 

 12-16 mm. long. 



Waste grounds. New Providence at Nassau : — southern United States ; West 

 Indies and continental tropical America ; Old World tropics. Recorded by Dolley as 

 Momordica Balsamina L. Wild Balsam-Apple. 



2. MELOTHRIA L. Sp. PI. 35. 1753. 

 Slender vines, with simple or rarely bifid tendrils, thin leaves, and small, 

 white or yellow, monoecious flowers, the staminate clustered, the pistillate often 

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