Minnesota Plant Life. 



395 



head, while the strap-shaped flowers form one or more marginal 

 rows and are then called ray-flowers, because they radiate from 

 the center of the disk. 



Gourds and cucumbers. The plants of the gourd family are 

 almost always provided with tendrils by which they climb, and 

 they belong to the highest group of climbing plants which 

 exists. The leaves are alternate and are generally large and 

 palmately divided like maple leaves. The calyx is fused with 

 the surface of the ovary and the petals arise from the calyx. The 

 corolla is often so deeply notched that it is broken up into five 

 separate petals, returning thus to the condition of the flowers 

 in a lower series. There 

 are from one to three sta- 

 mens. The fruit-rudiment 

 is from one to three-cham- 

 bered, commonly three- 

 chambered, as may be no- 

 ticed on the dining table 

 when sliced cucumbers are 

 served. The seeds are for 

 the most part flattened and 

 contain no albumen. Ex- 

 tremely large fruits with 

 great numbers of seeds are 

 produced by some of the 

 species of this order. The 

 well-known prize pumpkins 

 of the fairs, and the Georgia 

 watermelons furnish abun- 

 dant proof. Generally the fruits do not open, but release their 

 seeds by decay or after they are eaten by animals, but in some 

 varieties explosive fruits are known. From these the seeds are 

 ejected as from a catapult, or are shot out into the air as from 

 a gun or mortar. 



The star-cucumber is an herbaceous vine with palmately- 

 lobed leaves shaped like those of the moonseed. The flowers 

 are separated, both kinds being borne on the same plant. The 

 fruit is one-chambered and matures but a single seed. Three 

 or four of such fruits are borne together in a little bunch at 



FIG. 191. Blue-bells. After Britton and Brown. 



