CAMPANULATAE 



749 



CUCURBITACEAE B. Juss. Gourd Family 



Herbaceous vines, usually with tendrils; leaves alternate, petioled, palmately 

 lobed or dissected ; flowers dioecious, monoecious or rarely perfect ; calyx tube 

 adnate to the ovary, 5-lobed; petals usually 5, inserted on the limb of the calyx; 

 stamens 1-3, 2 of them with 2-celled anthers, the other with a 1-celled anther; 

 filaments short, frequently monadelphous ; ovary 1-3-celled; stigmas 2 or 3; 

 fruit indehiscent or rarely dehiscent; see^s flat in the large embryo, exal- 

 buminous. 



About 650 species, mainly in tropical regions. A few of the species are 

 medicinal. The squirting cucumber (Ecballium Elaterium') is a fleshy decum- 

 bent herb used for making elaterium, a powerful hydragogue cathartic and an 

 irrilant poison. Its poisonous nature was known to Pliny. It contains elatcrin, 

 C 2Q H 28 O 5 . E. officinale contains prophetin, another glucoside. The colocynth 

 (Citrullus Colocynthis} a slender scabrous plant with perennial roots, is native 

 to the dry regions of the Old World, Palestine and North Africa. Its gourd 

 is about the size of an orange and used as a purgative, while the seeds are 

 roasted and boiled and used as food by some of the tribes of the Saharah. 

 Tea made from this fruit is used by the people of the Nile to smear their 

 water bags to prevent camels from cutting them. It contains colocynthin, 



Fig. 436. Bryony (Bryonia dioica). A 

 a branch with flowers; b, female flowers; 

 c, male flowers; d, stamens; e, fruits; f, 

 section of fruit. (After Strasburger, Noll, 

 Schenck and Schimper). 



