CUCURBITACE,E 341 



LAGENARIA VULGARIS, Ser. the Bottle gourd, has 

 its petals entire, and the anthers included in the 

 calyx-tube. 



CEPHALANDRA INDICA, Naud. the Scarlet gourd, has 

 flowers like CUCURBITA, but white not yellow, and the 

 tendrils are simple not divided. 



CHARACTERS OF THE CUCURBITACE^E 



All these are members of very clearly marked and 

 easily recognized family, the CUCURBITACE^. They 

 are all climbing herbs with hollow stems and simple or 

 divided tendrils, the homology of which is obscure, for 

 they do not appear to take altogether the place of 

 leaves or axillary branches, but seem to be partly 

 branch, partly leaf -structures. In nearly all species the 

 leaves, and plant generally, are covered with coarse 

 stiff hairs. 



The leaves are alternate, petioled with cordate or 

 kidney-shaped base, simple, lobed or more or less 

 divided (palmately). 



The flowers are regular, unisexual, monoecious or 

 dioecious, yellow or white, with a long or short calyx- 

 tube and five-lobed corolla (see however the concluding 

 chapter). The stamens occupy the centre of the stami- 

 nate flower and have thick filaments, two much thicker 

 than the third. The anthers are in most genera doubled 

 back on themselves, one one-celled, two two-celled, so 

 that there are five cells in all. 



But since in one genus there are five distinct sta- 

 mens each with a one-celled anther, we must, regard 

 the stamens in CUCUMIS and other similar genera as 

 really five, of which four are united into two. The 



