250 CUCURBITACE^. Sicyos. 



A vine 10-15 feet long, climbing by 3 - 5-cleft tendrils. Leaves 4-6 inches in diameter, 

 ■with a pentagonal outline, roughish pubescent. Peduncles of the staminate flowers 4-8 

 inches long; the raceme often somewhat compound, finally somewhat elongated. Fertile 

 flowers not half the size of the staminate ones, sessile, on a peduncle which is 1 or 2 inches 

 long. Fruit about half an inch long, compressed, acute, collected in a head at the summit of 

 the peduncle ; the prickles about one-third of an inch long. 



Banks of rivers, cultivated grounds, and along fences ; common. August - September. 

 Often a troublesome wreed in gardens. 



2. ECHINOCYSTIS. Torr. ^ Gr. fl. N. Am. 1. p. 542 ; Endl. gen. suppl. 1. 5141, 1. 



WILD BALSAM-APPLE. 

 [ From the Grreek, echinos, prickly, and kystis, a bladder ; in allusion to the appearance of the fruit.] 



Flowers monoecious. Calyx flattish, in the fertile flowers slightly contracted above the ovary ; 

 the segments 6, filiform-subulate, shorter than the corolla. Corolla 6-parted, rotate- 

 campanulate. Sterile Fl. Stamens 3, diadelphous, short : anthers flexuous, united. 

 Fertile Fl. Abortive fllaments 3, very small, distinct. Style very short : stigmas 2, large, 

 broadly obcordate, connivent. Fruit globose-ovoid, bristly-echinate, at first watery and 

 spongy, at length bursting elastically at the summit, and becoming fibrous, 2-celled, 4- 

 seeded ; the cells divided at the base by a transverse spurious dissepiment. Seed (large) 

 not arillate, erect from the base of each spurious cell, obovate-oblong, flat, slightly 2-toothed 

 at the base, the margins obtuse. — An annual climbing herb, with palmately 5-lobed leaves 

 and 3-cleft tendrils. Flowers small, greenish-white ; the sterile in long compound racemes; 

 the fertile ones from the same axils, solitary or clustered on a short peduncle. 



1. EcHiNOCYSTis LOB ATA, ToTT. (^' Gr. (Plate XXX.) Wild Balsam-apple. 



Torr. ^ Gr. I. c. Sicyos lobata, Michx. fl. 2. p. 217. Momordica echinata, Muhl. in 

 Willd. sp. 4. p. 605 ; Pursh, fl. 2. p. 444 ; Torr. compend. p. 362 ; DC. prodr. 3. p. 312 ; 

 H. H. Eaton in Transylv. journ. med. 1832; Hook. fl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 220. Hexameria 

 echinata, Torr. <^ Gr. in Torr. rep. pi. N. York, p. 137. 



Stem smooth, 10 - 15 feet long, climbing over shrubs, etc. Leaves nearly smooth, 3 — 5 

 inches in diameter, slightly scabrous, with 5 deep acuminate sharply denticulate lobes. Sterile 

 racemes compound, erect, 5-7 inches long. Corolla nearly white, pubescent ; the segments 

 linear-lanceolate. Fertile flowers solitary, or 2 - 3 together. Fruit about the size of a 

 pigeon's egg, covered with short soft bristly spines, green, bursting rather irregularly at the 

 summit, the lacerated edges of the orifice becoming revolute. Seeds about three quarters of 

 an inch long, obovate-oblong, nearly black. 



Banks of the Hudson, and on the islands about Troy ; also abundant on the banks of the 



