CUCURBITACEAE (GOURD FAMILY) 405 



bright yellow, bell-shaped, three or four inches long and nearly as 

 broad, deeply five-lobed with pointed and recurving tips, ridged, 

 veined, and bearded inside and out; sterile flowers have three 

 stamens, two of which have two-celled anthers, the other one- 

 celled ; fertile flowers have one pistil, with short, thick style and 

 three-lobed stigmas. Ovary three celled, the fruit globose or 

 broadly ovoid, about three inches in diameter, with a hard, smooth 

 rind, yellow or pale green variegated with yellow, the pulp 

 within fibrous and very bitter, the seeds numerous, oval, flattened, 

 and lying horizontally in the triple cells. 



Means of control 



These troublesome plants are most readily and certainly de- 

 stroyed by strong hot brine, caustic soda, or carbolic acid, applied 

 to the crown of the huge, fleshy root. 



STAR CUCUMBER 

 Sicyos angulatus, L. 



Other English names: Nimble Kate, One-seeded Bur Cucumber. 

 Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: July to September. 

 Seed-time : August to October. 



Range: Quebec to Minnesota, southward to Florida and Texas. 

 Habitat : Moist, rich soil ; banks of streams, fence rows, thickets, 

 waste places. 



A vine of amazingly rapid growth; Dr. Coulter mentions one 

 that climbed up a neighboring tree to a distance of sixty-three feet. 

 Sometimes, on bottom lands which have been flooded, many seeds 

 lie dormant until the ground is put under cultivation, when they 

 suddenly spring to life, binding corn or tobacco rows or other vege- 

 tation into tangled thickets. 



Stem pale green, slender but very tough and fibrous, angled, 

 more or less viscidly hairy. Leaves very large (the lower ones 

 sometimes ten inches across), alternate, thin, rough on both sides, 

 heart-shaped at base, five-nerved and five-pointed, finely and 

 sharply toothed, with rather short, hairy petioles ; opposite each leaf 

 is a three- to five-parted and spirally curled tendril, on a much 



