76-!: CUCURBITACEAE (GOURD FAMILY) 



(Name from succidere, to bite off, from the praemorse rootstock.) Often united 

 with ScABiosA L. 



1. S. PRATEXsis Moench. Smoothish or hairy, 4-9 dm. liigh ; leaves chiefly 

 basal, oblanceolate, undulate or entire, the cauline mostly 2 pairs, considerably 

 reduced ; heads subglobose ; involucds somevahat i-angled, villons, 4-toothed : 

 calyx-limb o-awned; eoToWiX bright blue. (Scabiosa iSnccisa L.)— To some 

 extent established in fields about Louisburg, Cape Breton 1. (Macoim). (Adv. 

 from Eu.) 



2. S. AUSTRALis (Wulf.) Relcheub. Tall, loosely and mostly trichotomously 

 branched, covered above with minute crisped mostly reflexed gray hairs : leaves 

 elongated-lanceolate ; heads 8-lo mm. in diameter, at length subcylindri^'. ; 

 involucds glabrous, sonu^ivhat fusiform, S-ribbed, with small crenate-lobed 

 spreading border; calyx shortly 5-toothed, without awns; corolla light blue. 

 (Scabiosa Wulf.) — Locally established in meadows, etc., Mass., N. Y., and Pa. 

 (Nat. from Eu.) 



3. KNAUTIA L. 



Involucre, habit, etc., much as in the preceding. Chaff wanting, but the 

 receptacle more or less hairy. Involucels strongly compressed, the limb obscure, 

 at most indicated by minute teeth. Calyx cup-shaped, the limb mostly 8-awned. 

 Corolla light blue to lilac-purple, rarely pink or white. (Dedicated to Christian 

 Knaut, 1654-1716, Saxon physician and botanist.) 



1. K. ARVENsis (L.) T. Coulter. Pubescent, 4-9 dm. high, few-branched; 

 some or all of the leaves deeply pinnatifid or bipinnatifid ; heads depressed-hemi- 

 spherical ; corollas lilac. {Scabiosa L.) — Dry pastures, etc., e. Que. and N. E. 

 to Pa., locally well established and abundant. (Nat. from Eu.) 



CUCURBITACEAE (Gourd Family) 



Mostly succident herbs loith tendrils, dioecious or monoecious flowers^ the 

 calyx-tube adhering to the 1-S-celled ovary, and the 5 or usually 2i stamens 

 {i.e. 1 with a 1-celled and 2 with 2-celled anthers) commonly united by their 

 often tortuous anthers, and sometimes also by the filaments. Fruit (pepo) 

 fleshy, or sometimes membranaceous. Limb of the calyx and corolla usually 

 more or less combined. Stigmas 2 or 3. Seeds large, usually flat, anatropou? 

 ■with no albumen. Cotyledons leaf-like. Leaves alternate, palmately lobed or 

 veined. — Mostly a tropical or subtropical family. 



* Flowers large, yellow ; stem trailing. 



1. Cucurbita. Corolla campanulate, deeply 5-lobed. Fruit large, Indehiscent, fleshy. 



* * Flowers small, white or greenish ; stems high-climbing by tendrils. 



+• Fruit prickly ; seeds few, erect or pendulous ; flowers white ; annual. 

 ++ Ovary 1-celled ; seed solitary, pendulous. 



2. Sicyos. Corolla of the sterile flowers flat and spreading, 5-lobed. Fruit indehiscent. 



■H- ++ Ovary 2-3-celled ; seeds few, erect or ascending. 



3. Echinocystis. Corolla of the sterile flowers flat and spreading, 6-parted. Anthers 3. Fruit 



bladdery, 2-celled, 4-seeded, bursting at the top. 

 -»- -t- Fruit smooth ; seeds numerous, horizontal, attached to the 3-5 parietal placentae; perennial. 



4. Melothria. Flowers small, greenish ; corolla 5-parted. Slender, climbing. Fruit small. 



1. CUCURBITA [Tourn.] L. Gourd. Squash. Pumpkin 



Flowers monoecious. Corolla campanulate, deeply 5-lobed, the lobes with 

 recurved tips. Anthers united, 1 of them 1-locular, the others 2-locular. Style 

 short, with 8 lobed or divided stigmas. Emit fleshy, covered by a firm rind, 

 with many horizontal seeds. — FIerl)s, with annual or perennial roots, large 



