CUCURBITACE^E. (GOURD FAMILY.) 195 



5 or usually 2 stamens (i. e., 1 with a 1-celled and 2 with 2-celled anthers) 

 commonly united by their often tortuous anthers, and sometimes also by the 

 filaments. Fruit (pepo) fleshy, or sometimes membranaceous. Limb of 

 the calyx and corolla usually more or less combined. Stigmas 2 or 3. 

 Seeds large, usually flat, anatropous, with no albumen. Cotyledons leaf- 

 like. Leaves alternate, palmately lobed or veined. Mostly a tropical 

 or subtropical order ; represented in cultivation by the GOURD (LAGE- 



NARIA VULGARIS), PUMPKIN and SQUASH (species of CUCURBITA), MUS^-, 

 MELON (CUCUMIS MELO), CUCUMBER (C. SAT1VUS), and WATERMELON 



(CiTRULLUs VULGARIS). 



* Fruit prickly. Seeds few, erect or pendulous. Flowers white. Annual, 

 t- Ovary 1-celled. Seed solitary, pendulous. 



1. Sicyos. Corolla of the sterile flowers flat aud spreading, 5-lobed. Fruit indehiscent. 



- - Ovary 2-3-celled. Seeds few, erect or ascending. 



2. Echinocystis. Corolla of the sterile flowers flat and spreading, 6-parted. Anthers 8. 



Fruit bladdery, 2-celled, 4-seeded, bursting at the top. 



3. Cyclanthera. Corolla 5-parted. Anther 1, annular. Fruit oblique and gibbous. 



* * Fruit smooth. Seeds numerous, horizontal, attached to the 3-5 parietal placentae. 



Perennial. 



4. Melothria. Flowers small, greenish ; corolla 5-parted. Slender, climbing. Fruit small. 



5. Cucurbita. Flowers large, yellow, tubular-campanulate. Prostrate. Fruit large. 



1. SICYOS, L. ONE-SEEDED BUR-CUCUMBER. 



Flowers monoecious. Petals 5, united below into a bell-shaped or flattish 

 corolla. Anthers cohering in a mass. Ovary 1-celled, with a single suspended 

 ovule ; style slender ; stigmas 3. Fruit ovate, dry and indehiscent, filled by 

 the single seed, covered with barbed prickly bristles which are readily detached. 

 Climbing annuals, with 3-forked tendrils, and small whitish flowers ; the 

 sterile and fertile mostly from the same axils, the former corymbed, the latter 

 in a capitate cluster, long-peduncled. (Greek name for the Cucumber.) 



1. S. angulatus, L. Leaves roundish heart-shaped, 5-angled or lobed, 

 the lobes pointed ; plant clammy-hairy. River-banks, and a weed in damp 

 yards, N. H. and Quebec to Fla., west to Minn., E. Kan., and Tex. July - Sept. 



2. ECHINOCYSTIS, Torr. & Gray. WILD BALSAM-APPLE. 



Flowers monoecious. Petals 6, lanceolate, united at the base into an open 

 spreading corolla. Anthers more or less united. Ovary 2-celled, with 2 erect 

 ovules in each cell ; stigma broad. Fruit fleshy, at length dry, clothed with 

 weak prickles, bursting at the summit, 2-celled, 4-seeded, the inner part fibrous- 

 netted. Seeds large, flat, with a thickish hard and roughened coat. Tall 

 climbing annual, nearly smooth, with 3-forked tendrils, thin leaves, and very 

 numerous small greenish-white flowers ; the sterile in compound racemes often 

 1 long, the fertile in small clusters or solitary, from the same axils. (Name 

 composed of ^x^ 05 * a hedgehog, and KVCTTLS, a bladder ', from the prickly fruit.) 



1- E. lobata, Torr. & Gray. Leaves deeply and sharply 5-lobed; fruit 

 oval (2' long) ; seeds dark-colored. Rich soil along rivers, W. New Eng and 

 Penn. to Minn., E. Kan., and Tex. Also cult, for arbors. July -Oct. 



