101 



tendrils simple ; leaves cordate, lobed or angled ; flowers short- 

 peduncled; male, fascicled ; female 1 to 4, in different axils from the 

 male ; berry globular, scarlet, size of a pea, smooth or sprinkled 

 with a few bristly hairs ; seeds surrounded by a narrow zone, 

 rugose, from numerous shallow hollows. Syn. Bryonia scabrella, 

 Linn. Common in every hedge. Native name " Chirati." 



5. BRYONIA, Linn. 



1. B LACINIOSA, Linn. Climbing; stems smooth; leaves 

 palmately 5-lobed, more or less deeply divided, segments oblong- 

 lanceolate, acuminated serrated ; petioles muricated ; male flowers 

 fascicled, female solitary in the same axil ; berry size of a cherry, 

 round, smooth, pale-red, with white streaks. Linn. sp. p 624. 

 Common in hedges. 



2. B UMBELLATA, Herb. Madr. Dioscious ; root tuberous; 

 leaves shortly petioled, cordate or sagittate or hastate at the 

 base, the lobes longer than the petiole, 3 to 5-lobed, or palmately 

 5-partite, sinuate and sharply toothed ; male flowers umbelled or 

 shortly racemose, at the apex of a long slender peduncle; female 

 on a different plant, solitary, short-ped uncled ; berry oval or oblong, 

 size of a pigeon's egg, smooth, red when ripe. Common in hedges. 

 Native name " Gometta." Syn. Momordica umbellata, Roxb. Fl 

 Ind. iii, p 710. 



3. B MYSORENSIS, Herb. Madr. Stems glabrous, smooth; 

 tendrils simple ; leaves cordate, repand-toothed, 5-angled or lobed ; 

 male flowers in a simple or proliferous umbel, at the apex of a long, 

 slender peduncle; female shortly peduncled, solitary, rarely um- 

 bellate, at the apex of a long peduncle ; berry longish-oval, glabrous, 

 copiously marked before maturity with small, shallow pits ; seeds 

 smooth, flat on the sides. Not common ; found only in the 

 Warree Country. 



6. CITRULLUS, Necker. 



1 . C COLOCYNTHIS, A rnott. loc. cit. Creeping ; stems scabrous ; 

 leaves glabrous and nearly quite smooth above, copiously muricated 

 beneath, with small, white, hair-bearing tubercles, many-cleft and 

 lobed, the lobes obtuse ; tendrils short and simple ; female flowers 

 solitary ; calyx tube globose and hispid ; fruit globose, glabrous, 

 variegated longitudinally with green and yellow, often only yellow, 

 especially when ripe. Eastern Deccan and Guzerat. Native 

 name " Indrayeen." Syn. Cucumis colocynthis, Linn. Extends 

 over Africa and Arabia, even to the shores of Spain. Mentioned in 

 the Old Testament under the names of " Paka" and " Pakuot." 

 From the fruit of this plant compound extract of Colocynth is 



