GOURD FAMILY. 191 



-J * Fruit small and berry-like ; floivera vert/ small for this Family. 



-h- Fruit smooth; ovules and seeds many, horizontal, on 8 placentre ; Jilameitts sepa- 

 rate ; anthers straightish ; tendrils simple. 

 tj. MICLOTIIRIA. Flowers yellow or greenish, the sterile in small racemes, the fertile 

 solitary on a long and slender peduncle. Corolla open bell-shaped, 5-cleft. Anthers 

 slightly united, soon separate. Fertile flower with calyx tube constricted above the 

 ovary. 

 •1- ^- Fruit prickly ; ovules and seeds 1-4, large and vertical : filaments monadelplious ; 

 anthers tortuous ; tendrils S-forked. 



7. ECIIINOCYSTIS. Flowers white, the sterile in compound racemes or pauicles, the 



fertile solitary or in small clusters from the same a.xils. Corolla wheel-shaped, of 6 

 narrow petals united at the base. Anthers more or less united in a mass. Style 

 hardly any ; stigma broad. Fruit oval or roundish, beset with wealc, simple pricliles, 

 bursting irregularly at the top when ripe ; the outer part fleshy under the thin, preen 

 rind, becoming dry ; the inner part a flbrnus network making 2 obloiig cells, each 

 divided at the base into two 1-seeded eompartinc-iits. ^^c•o(ls large, blackish, hard- 

 coated, erect from the base of the fruit. 



8. SICYOS. Flowers greenish-white, the sterile in corymbs or panicles, the fertile (very 



small) in a little head on a long peduncle, mostly from the same axils. Corolla nearly 

 wheel-sluiped, 5-cleft. Anthers short, united in a little liead. Style slender ; stigmas 

 8. Ovary tapering into a narrow neck below the rest of the flower, 1-celled, becom- 

 ing a dry and indehiscent, ovate or flattish-spindle-shaped, bur-like fruit, beset with 

 stiff and barbed bristles, filled by the single hanging seed. 



1. LAGENARIA, BOTTLE GOUKD. (Latin la grna, n bottle.) ® 



L. vulgaris, Ser. Bottle, Snake, and Slgar-troogh Gourd, Cala- 

 bash. Cult, from Africa and Asia ; climbing freelj'. rather clammy- 

 pubescent and musky-scented, with rounded leaves, long-stalked flowers, 

 white petals greenish-veiny, and fruit of very various shape, usually 

 club-shaped, or long and much enlarged at the apex and slightly at base, 

 the hard rind used for vessels, dippers, etc. 



2. CUCURBITA, PUMPKIN, SQUASH, GOURD. (Latin name.) ® 

 The very numerous cultivated forms, strikingly different in their fruit, 

 belong to three botanical species. Probably native to America. 



* Stalks (111(1 siniicu'liat Inbcd leavrs roKih-hrixflij (tlnuist /iricklij ; flotoer- 

 .stalks (,l,i„s,l(j (i/Ki/cil, that of the fruit stroiKjl n ^>-><-ri('(i,'d and xcith 

 uitcrrciiiiKj (icp (jriKives, itsiiallij ('iil>ir(/iii(j i/cxl the fruit ; hollow 

 interior of the fruit travpracd by C(Hirse and separate, mft or pnlpij 

 threads ; flower lube flarinfj, the lobes pointed and erect. 



C. Pepo, Linn. Pimi-kin. Cult., as now, along with Indian Corn, by 

 the Nortli American Indians before the coming of the whites. 'J'he chief 

 types are : the common Fikld Pumpkin used for pies and fed to stock ; 

 the BisH Scallop Squashks with white or yellow fruit flattened endwise 

 and the vines scarcely running ; the Summkh Crook-nkck or Wahtv 

 Squashes, with white or yeUow .l-shaped fruits, and vines seldom run- 

 ning ; the Gourds, small, very hard-shelled fruits of many shapes and 

 colors borne on slender running vines. 



* * Stalks and bright ijreen b-l-lnbed leaves jtubesceiit with soft hairs; 

 fruit stalk ky-ridged, prominently enlarged where, it joins the friiit, the 

 central pulp less thready ; flower tube much like *, the lobes broader; 

 caly.r lobes often leafy. 



C. moschdta, Duchesne. China. Cishaw, Canada Ci!o<ik-ni-.(k, 

 Winter Ckook-neck Sijt ashes. Cult, for the edible fruit, which is 



