CLASSIFICATION OF ANGIOSPERAIS. 



709 



cm. in diameter, smooth, greenish, and mottled. The fruit de- 

 prived of the epicarp is official. 



Cucurbita Pepo (pumpkin-vine) is an extensively trailing 

 hispid vine, with large, nearly entire, cordate leaves having long 

 petioles. The tendrils are branching. The flowers are large, 

 deep yellow, and monoecious ; the staminate ones being in groups 

 and the pistillate single. The fruit is a large, yellowish berry 

 sometimes weighing from 10 to 72 K. The seeds are numerous 

 and are official as Pepo. 



EchaUiiim Elaterium (Squirting cucumber) is a bristly-hairy, 

 trailing perennial herb with thick, rough-hairy, cordate, some- 

 what undulate leaves. The flowers are yellow, monoecious. The 

 fruit is ellipsoidal, about 4 cm. long, rough-hairy or prickly, pend- 

 ulous, and at maturity separates from the stalk, when tlie seeds 

 are discharged upward through a basal pore. The plant is indig- 

 enous to the European countries bordering the Mediterranean, 

 the Caucasus region, Northern Africa and the Azores. The juice 

 of the fruit yields the drug Elaterium, which is official in the 

 Britisii Pharmacopoeia. Elaterium yields 30 per cent, of the 

 ELATERiN of the PharmacoDoeias. From the latter by fractional 

 crystallization from 60 to 80 per cent, of a-elaterin, a l^vo-rota- 

 tory crystalline substance is separated, which is completely devoid 

 of purgative action; and varying amounts of ^-elaterin, a dextro- 

 rotatory crystalline compound which possesses a very high degree 

 of physiological activity (Power and Moore, Ph. Jour., 29, Oct. 

 23, 1909, p. 501 ; and Proc. Chcm. Soc, No. 362, 1909, 'p. 1985). 

 Bryonia or bryony is the dried root of Bryonia alba (White 

 bryony), a climbing herb indigenous to Southern Sweden, East- 

 ern and Central Europe, including Southern Russia, and Northern 

 Persia (Fig. 181). The root contains two bitter glucosides, 

 bryonin and bryonidin ; two resinous principles and considerable 

 starch. Bryonia dioica (Red bryony) also has medicinal proper- 

 ties and is a source of the drug. B. dioica has red berries, while 

 the fruit of B. alba is black. The latter plant is sometimes known 

 as Black bryony, but this plant should not be confounded with 

 Tamils communis (Fam. Dioscoreaceae), of Southern Europe, 

 the rhizome of which is known commercially as Black bryony. 

 The fruits and seeds of various members of the Cucurbitacese 



