190 GOURD FAiMILY. 



■>-- +- Leaves entire, feather-veined; floioer hell-shaped. 



P. quadrangularis, Linn. Large Granadili.a. Very largo, with the 

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

 or oval, or slightly heart-shaped, briglit 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, 

 G' long. 



L. CUCURBITACEiE, (iOURD FAMILY. 



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

 herbage, watery juice, alternate palmately ribbed and mostly 

 lobed or angled leaves, monoecious or sometimes dioecious 

 flowers ; the calyx coherent with the ovary, corolla more com- 

 monly 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, filling the seed, straight, mostly 

 with fiat or leaf-like cotyledons. 



§ 1. Flowers large or middle-sized, on separate simple peduncles in the axils ; anthers 

 ivith long and narrow cells, bent up and dotvn or contorted ; ovules and seeds 

 niany, horizontal, on mostly 3 simple or double placenta; fruit (of the sort 

 called a pepo) large, fleshy or pulpy icith a harder rind. 



* Both kinds of flowers solitary in the axils. 



1. LAGENARIA. Tendrils 2-forke(l. Flowers musk-.scented, with a funnel-form or bell- 



shai)ed calyx tube, and 5 obcordate or obovate and mucronate white petals ; the sterile 

 on a long, the fertile on a shorter, peduncle. Anthers lightly cohering with each 

 other. Stigmas 3, each 2-lobe"d. Fruit with a hard or woody rind and soft flesh. 

 ' Seeds margined. Petiole bearing a pair of glands at the apex. 



2. CUCURBITA. Tendrils 2-.')-forked. Flowers large, with a bell-.shaped or short funnel- 



form 5-clcft yellow corolla, its base adherent to the bell-shaped tube of the calyx. 



Stamens from the bottom of the flower; anthers long-linear, much curved, .all three 



united into a small head. Stigmas 3, each 2-lobed. Fruit fleshy with a firmer rind. 



Seeds mostly margined. 

 8. CITHULIA'S. Tendrils 2— 3-forked. Flowers with a short bell-shaped calyx tube, and 



a deeply .')-cleft, wdely open, pale yellow corolla. Stamens with very short filaments ; 



anthers lightly cohering. Stigmas 3, kidney-shaped. Seeds marginless, imbedded in 



the enlarged pulpy placentae. 



* * Sterile flowers clustered, fertile ones solitary in the axils. 

 4. CUCUMIS. Tendrils simple. Corolla of 5 almost separate, acute petals. Stamens 



separate ; anthers with only one bend. Stigmas 3, blunt. Fruit with a fleshy rind. 



Seeds not margined. 

 § 2. Flowers of one or both sorts in racemes, panicles, corymbs, or long-stalked 

 clusters. 



* Fruit large and gourd-like ; flowers large. 



a. LUFFA. Flowers cream-colored or orange, with obcordate or obovate petals; the 

 staminate ones in a raceme on a long stalk ; the pistillate, solitary and poduncled. 

 Tendrils variously branched. Fruit long-cylindrical, dry when ripe, green, the 

 Interior fibrous and sponge-like. 



