186 CUCURBITACEJ5. (GOURD FAMILY.) 



2. P. incarn&ta, L. Nearly smooth ; leaves 3-clefl ; the lobes serrate ; peti- 

 ole bearing 2 glands ; flower large (2' broad), nearly white, with a triple purple 

 and flesh-colored crown; involucre 3-leavcd. — Dry soil, Virginia, Kentucky, 

 and southward. May - July. — Fruit of the size of a hen's egg, oval, called 

 May pops. 



Order 45. CUCURBITACEiE. (Gourd Family.) 



Mostly succulent herbs with tendrils, dioecious or monoecious {often mono- 

 petalous) flowers, the calyx-tube cohering with the 1-3-celled ovary, and the 

 5 or usually 2J- stamens (i. e. one with a one-celled and 2 with two-celled 

 anthers) commonly united by their often tortuous anthers, and sometimes also 

 by the filaments. Fruit (pepo) fleshy, or sometimes membranaceous. — 

 Limb of the calyx and corolla usually more or less combined. Stigmas 2 

 or 3. Seeds large, usually flat, anatropous, with no albumen. Cotyledons 

 leaf-like. Leaves alternate, palmately lobed or veined. — Mostly a trop- 

 ical or subtropical order ; represented in cultivation by the Gourd (La- 

 genaria vulgaris), Pumpkin and Squash (species of Cucurbita), 

 Muskmelon (Cucumis Melo), Cucumber (C. sativus), and Wa- 

 termelon (Citkullus vulgaris) ; while as wild plants, there are only 

 the three following : — 



1. Sicyos. Corolla of the sterile flowers flat and spreading, 5-lobed. Fruit prickly, indehis- 



cent, 1-celled, 1 -seeded. 



2. Echinocystis. Corolla of the sterile flowers flat and spreading, 6-parted. Pod prickly, 



2-celled. 4-seeded, bursting at the top. 



3. Dlelothria. Corolla of the sterile flowers somewhat campanulate, 5-cleft. Berry smooth, 



many-seeded. 



1. SICYOS, L. One-seeded Star-Cucumber. 



Flowers monoecious. Petals 5, united below into a bell-shaped or flattish co- 

 rolla. Anthers cohering in a mass. Ovary 1-celled, with a single suspended 

 ovule : style slender : stigmas 3. Fruit ovate, dry and iudehiscent, filled by the 

 single seed, covered with barbed prickly bristles which are readily detached. — 

 Climbing annuals, with 3-forked tendrils, small whitish flowers ; the sterile and 

 fertile mostly from the same axils, the former corymbed, the latter in a capitate 

 cluster, long-peduncled, (Greek name for the Cucumber.) 



1. S. angulatus, L. Leaves roundish heart-shaped, 5-angled or lobed, 

 the lobes pointed ; plant clammy-hairy. — lliver-banks ; and a weed in damp 

 yards. July - Sept. 



2. ECHINOCYSTIS, Torr. & Gray. Wild Balsam-apple. 



Flowers monoecious. Petals 6, lanceolate, united at the base into an open 

 spreading corolla. Anthers more or less united. Ovary 2-celled, with 2 erect 

 ovules in each cell : stigma broad. Fruit fleshy, at length dry, clothed with 

 weak prickles, bursting at the summit, 2-celled, 4-seeded, the inner part fibrous- 

 netted. Seeds large, with a thickish hard coat. Tall climbing plants, nearly 

 smooth, with 3-forked tendrils, thin leaves, and very numerous small greenish- 



