CUCURBITACEAE (GOURD FAMILY) 



407 



to thirty feet long, angular, grooved, smooth except for a few hairs 



at the joints. Leaves alternate thin, pale green, slightly rough 



on both sides with five triangular, pointed lobes or occasionally 



three- or seven-lobed, with slim, / 



rather short petioles ; opposite 



each leaf a three-forked tendril 



with a much longer footstalk. 



Flowers of two kinds, the stami- 



nate ones in long compound axil- 



lary racemes, the corollas deeply 



five- to six-parted, star-shaped, 



white, and fragrant; stamens 



three, with cohering anthers ; 



below, in the same axil, are the 



inconspicuous pistillate flowers, 



usually solitary, but sometimes 



in twos or threes ; ovary two- 



celled, with slender style and 



broad, hemispheric stigma. 



Fruit ovoid, nearly two inches 



long, covered with weak spines, 



two-celled, each cavity contain- 



ing two rough-coated seeds 



nearly an inch in length; these 



(Echmocystis lobata). X 



seeds are discharged somewhat 



forcibly by the sudden bursting of the "apple" at the top. 



(Fig. 284.) 



Means of control 



The plant is seldom a nuisance except when spreading in home 

 grounds. There the pistillate flowers should be nipped out before 

 maturity unless one prefers to pull cucumber seedlings from 

 several outlying yards of ground for several seasons. Occasion- 

 ally it may be found, like the preceding species, invading bottom 

 land corn and tobacco fields. There it should receive the same 

 treatment as recommended for Nimble Kate, of course before the 

 first of the prickly " balsam apples " approach maturity. 



