108 CUCURBITACE^E. (GOURD FAMILY.) 



the loose flowering branches, slightly pedicellate, with I or 2 bracts at base : 

 outer filaments flat. Loc. cit. M. Wrightii of Fl. Colorado. S. Colorado, 

 southward and westward. 



8. M. Chrysantha, Engelm. Stems 1 to 2 feet high, branching : leaves 

 ovate-lanceolate, the lower narrowed towards the base : flowers subsessile : 

 petals 6 to 9 lines long, acute, often less than 10, the innermost smaller and 

 antheriferous : seeds narrowly margined but not winged. Brandegee's Fl. 

 S. W. Col. 237. Differs from M. pumila in its larger flowers and seeds not 

 winged. Near Canon City, Colorado, and S. Utah. 



9. M. milltiflora, Gray. Stems scabrous, pubescent, a span to a foot high : 

 leaves attenuate below : flowers more numerous, subtended by 1 or 2 bracts : petals 

 deep yellow, abruptly pointed, 6 to 9 lines long. PI. Fendl. 48. Colorado and 

 southward. 



ORDER 33. CUCURBIT AC E^E. (GOURD FAMILY.) 



Herbs, mostly tendril-bearing and climbing, rather succulent, with 

 alternate and palmately veined or lobed leaves and no proper stipules, 

 flowers monoecious or dioecious, with petals more commonly united into 

 a cup or tube and also blended with tbe calyx. Sterile flowers with 

 two 2-celled anthers and one \ -celled ; the cells usually long and con- 

 torted. Fertile flowers with the calyx -tube adnate to a 1 to 3-celled 

 ovary. 



1. Cucurbita. Flowers all solitary, large, yellow. Corolla 5-cleft. Fruit smooth, inde- 



hiscent, 1-celled, many-seeded. 



2. E chin ocyst is. Sterile flowers in compound racemes, small, greenish white. Corolla 



6-parted. Fruit prickly, bursting at the top, 2-celled, 4-seeded. 



1. CUCURBITA, L. PUMPKIN, SQUASH, ETC. 



Flowers monoecious. Calyx-tube and corolla campanulate. Sterile flowers 

 with the stamens at the base. Fertile flowers with 3 rudimentary stamens : 

 ovary oblong, with 3 placentas. Fruit fleshy, often with a hard rind. Seed 

 ovate or oblong, flattened. Mostly prostrate and rooting at the joints : leaves 

 cordate : tendrils compound. 



1. C. perennis, Gray. Koot fleshy, very large, 6 inches to 3 feet thick, 

 yellow inside : leaves cordate-ovate or triangular, undivided or subsinuate- 

 repand, margin denticulate : fruit globose, yellow, 2 or 3 inches in diameter. 

 PI. Lindh. 193. From Colorado to Texas and Mexico, and westward to 

 California. 



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



Flowers monoecious. Petals united at the base into an open spreading 

 corolla. Fruit fleshy, at length dry. Tall climbing plants, nearly smooth, 

 with 3-forked tendrils, thin leaves, fertile flowers in small clusters or solitary, 

 from the same axils as the sterile. 



