GOUHD FAMILY. 



141 



4. SI'CYOS, L. ONE-SEEDED STAR-CUCUMBER. 



[The ancient Greek name for the Cucumber.] 



Petals 5, united below into a bell- 

 shaped or flattish corolla. Stamens 

 5, all cohering. Ovary 1-celled ; style 

 slender; stigmas 3. Fruit ovate, 

 compressed, dry and membranaceous, 

 filled by a single seed, beset with 

 barbed prickles. Climbing annuals, 

 resembling the common Cucumber 

 vine : fruit in capitate clusters. 



1. S. angula'tus, L. Leaves cor- 

 date at base, angulate 5-lobed ; fruit 

 prickly and villous in small, dense, 

 pedunculate clusters. 

 ANGULATE SICYOS. One-seeded star- 

 cucumber. 



Viscid pubescent. Stem 15 - 20 feet long, slen- 

 der, branching ; tendrils somewhat umbellatoly 

 branched. Leaves 3- 5 or 6 inches long, and 

 about as wide as long ; petioles 2-3 inches in 

 length. Flowers greenish-white, clustered 

 on axillary common peduncles 1-5 inches in 

 length, the staminate ones corymbose capitate 

 with the peduncle longer ; the pistillate ones in 

 dense capitate clusters. Fruit compressed, 

 ovate in stellately-globose heads, which are 

 about an inch in diameter, and armed with 

 slender tawny spines. 



River banks. July -Sept. 



Obs. This cucumber-like Vine has 

 found its way into gardens where 

 it is a nuisance rather difficult to 

 get rid of. It is, according to Dr. 

 Short, a great pest in the rich corn- 

 fields of Kentucky, " springing up 

 after the crop ' is laid by' and so ex- 

 tending from one corn-stalk to anotl er as to make it extremely difficult 

 to pass through the field." The Balsam Apple (MOMORDICA BALSAM- 

 INA, L.}, the red fruit of which, made into a tincture, was formerly 

 used as an application to wounds, belongs to this section and is some- 

 times cultivated in gardens. 



*" x " Petals united with each other and with the calyx. 



AI-L 



TIG. 95. The one-seeded Star-cucumber (Sicyos angulatus). 



