CUCUKBITACEJE. (GOURD FAMILY.; 139 



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 small whitish flowers ; the sterile and fertile mostly 

 from the same axils, the former corymbed, the latter in a capitate cluster, long- 

 peduncled. (The Greek name for the Cucumber.) 



1. S. m is? is I Tit US, L. Leaves roundish-heart-shaped and 5-angled or 

 lobed, the lobes pointed ; plant beset with clammy hairs. River-banks. July - 

 Sept. 



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



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

 spreading corolla. Stamens 3, separable into 2 sets. Ovary 2-celled, with 2 

 erect ovules in each cell : stigma broad. Fruit large, ovoid, fleshy, at length 

 dry, clothed with weak prickles, bursting at the summit, 2-celled, 4-seeded, the 

 inner part fibrous-netted. Seeds large, obovate-oblong. An annual, rank, and 

 tall-climbing plant, nearly smooth, with deeply and sharply 5-lobed thin leaves, 

 and very numerous small greenish-white flowers ; the sterile in compound ra- 

 cemes often 1 long, the fruitful in small clusters or solitary, from the same 

 axils. (Name composed of exivos, a hedgehog, and KIXTTIS, a bladder, from the 

 prickly covering of the at length bladdery fruit.) 



1. E. lobata, Torr. & Gr. (Sicyos, Michx. Momordica echinata, Muhl) 



Rich soil along rivers, W. New England to Wisconsin and Kentucky. July- 

 Oct. Fruit 2' long. 



3. MEL.OTHRIA, L. MELOTHRIA. 



Flowers polygamous or monoecious ; the sterile campanulate, the corolla 5- 

 lobed ; the fertile with the calyx-tube constricted above the ovary, then campan- 

 ulate. Anthers 3 or 5, more or less united. Berry fleshy, filled with many flat 

 and horizontal seeds. Tendrils simple. Flowers very small. (Altered from 

 M^Xo>$poi/, an ancient name for a sort of white grape.) 



1. M. pc lid II la, L. Slender, climbing ; leaves small, roundish and 

 heart-shaped, 5-angled or lobed, roughish ; sterile flowers few in small racemes ; 

 the fertile solitary, greenish, or yellowish; berry oval ( -1' long), green, ty 



Copses, Virginia and southward. June - Aug. 



CUCUMIS SAxlvus, the CUCUMBER; C. MELO, the MUSKMELON, C. Ci- 

 TRULLUS, the WATERMELON; CUCURBITA PEPO, the PUMPKIN, C. MELO- 

 PEPO, the ROUND SQUASH ; C. VERRUC6SA, the LONG SQUASH ; C. AURAX- 

 TIA, the ORANGE GOURD ; and LAGENARIA VULGARIS, the BOTTLE GOURD, 



are the most familiar cultivated representatives of this family. 



ORDER 49. CRASStTLACE^E. (ORPINE FAMILY.) 



Succulent herbs, with perfectly symmetrical flowers ; viz. the petals and 

 pistils equalling the sepals in number (3- 20), and the stamens the same or 

 double their number. Sepals persistent, more or less united at the base. 



