108 CUCUKBITACE^. (GOURD FAMILY.) 



the loose flowering branches, slightly pedicellate, with 1 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 icinged. — 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. niultiflora, Gray. Stems scabrous, pubescent, a span to afoot high : 

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

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

 southward. 



Order 33. CUCURBITACEiE. (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 the calyx. Sterile flowers with 

 two 2-celled anthers and one 1 -celled; the cells usually long and con- 

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

 ovary. 



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



liiscent, 1-celled, many-seeded. 



2. Echinocystis. Sterile flowers in compoiuid racemes, small, greenish white. Corolla 



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



1. C U C TJ R B I T A, L. Pumpkin, Squash, etc. 



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

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

 ovary oblong, with 3 placentae. 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. Root 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. E C H I NO C Y S T I S, 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 tlie same axils as the sterile. 



