WILD CUCUMBER 



The Wild Cucumber vine is often seen in cultiva- 

 tion climbing over arbors and on fences. The flower- 

 ing of this vine is extremely interesting. The flower- 

 ing racemes are abundant and frequently a foot long; 



Wild Cucumber. Echinocystis lobdta 



even an ordinary raceme will produce more than one 

 hundred staminate flowers. The puzzle is to find 

 the pistillate flowers which are to produce the fruit. 

 At the base of the long raceme, sometimes on its cen- 

 tral stem and sometimes at the axil, is a minute green 

 lump, which may be one and sometimes is several 

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