GARDEN BOTANY. liii 



stalk of the fruit woody, strongly 5 - 8-ridged with deep intervening grooves. 

 The little ORANGE GOURD (C. ovifera) is probably the original of this. 



C. maxima, SQUASH, CYMLING, &c. Less rough leaf-stalks, and 

 rounder less lobed leaves than in the foregoing ; stalk of the fruit thick, not 

 deeply grooved, but many-striate. 



2. Lagenaria vulgaris, BOTTLE GOURD, is well marked by its large 

 white flowers on long peduncles, and its hard-rinded fruit of diverse shapes, 

 used for bottles, dippers, &c. 



3. Citrullus vulgaris, WATERMELON. Leaves deeply 3-5-lobed, and 

 the divisions again lobed or sinuate-pinnatifid, pale or bluish ; the edible pulp 

 of the fruit consists of the enlarged and juicy placenta (reddish or rarely 

 white) ; a variety with hard flesh is cultivated for preserving, under the name 

 of Citron. 



4. Cu'cumis. The genus includes two familiar esculents, viz. the CUCUM- 

 BER and the True MELON. 



C. Melo, MELON, MUSKMELON. Leaves round-cordate or reniform, 

 the lobes if any and sinuses rounded ; fruit with a smooth rind and sweet flesh, 

 the edible part being the inner portion of the pericarp, the thin and watery 

 placentae being discarded with the seeds. The SERPENT MELON, sometimes 

 called SERPENT-CUCUMBER, is a strange variety, occasionally met with, with 

 a long and snake-like fruit. 



C. sativus, CUCUMBER. Leaves more or less lobed, the lobes acute, 

 the middle one more prominent, often pointed ; fruit rough or muricate when 

 young, smooth when ripe, eaten unripe. 



6. Trichosanthes COlubrina, SNAKE-PLANT. Cult, for ornament in 

 hot-houses, &c. ; the white flowers remarkable for having the petals cut into 

 slender fringes ; the fruit imitating a snake, green mottled with whitish and 

 yellowish, when ripe turning red, from 4 to 7 long. 



ORDER BEGONIACE.E. BEGONIA FAMILY. 



Begonia. Many species are cultivated in hot-houses, some for their curious 

 leaves, others for their pretty flowers. They are known by their leaves, which 

 are always inequilateral, one side being much larger than the other, and by 

 their monoecious flowers ; the staminate flowers having one large pair of 

 rounded petaloid sepals, and within a pair of smaller ones or petals, and many 

 stamens. The pistillate flowers have a triangular or 3-winged inferior ovary, 

 and usually 5 less unequal sepals, resembling petals. 



ORDER CRASSTJLACE.SJ. ORPINE FAMILY. 



Manual, p. 140. All the Sedums in the Manual, except No. 3, are more or 

 less cultivated ; also 



1. Sedum acre, Moss STONECROP, WALL-PEPPER. Spreading on the 

 ground and rooting, moss-like, with very small and thick ovate leaves and 

 scattered yellow flowers ; cult, for garden edgings, &c. 



2. Sempervivum tectorum, HOUSELEEK. Spreading by offsets, the 

 leaves thick and broad, in bulb-like rosettes ; rarely flowering here ; flower-stem 

 a foot high; flowers cymose, with 6 or more sepals, petals, and pistils, and 

 twice as many purplish petals. 



