roool BARBER-FRUITS AND SEEDS OF CUCURBITACEAE 273 



Specific characters* 



CUCURBITA PEPO L. 



Pepo L. (pum 



WlTTMACK 



ligations of prehistoric remains in Peru, claims it to be a native of 

 America. Early explorers also recorded the cultivation of this 

 fruit by the aborigines in their maize fields. 



The fruit is one of the largest of the Cucurbitaceae, occasionally 

 reaching a weight of 200 kilos. It is a smooth, apple-shaped berry, 

 with about twenty, more or less pronounced, longitudinal grooves, 

 the color varying from yellowish green to orange. There are man} 

 subspecies, differing greatly in size and shape, of which Harz enumer- 

 ates thirty. Among them are the small to enormously large spherical, 



J 



Most 



irnamental 



At maturity the fruit consists of a hollow, yellow rind, 2-3 

 thickness, containing a tangle of slimy fibers, 

 among which are the numerous flattened 

 seeds. 



The white seeds (fig. 1) are 1.5-2.5°™ in 

 fength, elliptical, flattened, and have a narrow ^ 



border about the edge on both sides. Fig. i.—Cucurbiia 



Pericarp.— This makes up the bulk of the repoh. Seed. Xi 

 fruit. It includes the rind and fibers, the con- 

 necting parenchyma breaking down before the fruit reaches maturi >. 



1. Epicarp (figs. 2 , 3 , ^).-The Prismatic cells ^m a pahsade 



• "" Ul ^A* 1" llt'lglU, Willi UUIU anu x^-— - - are 



cuticularized, and colored bright yellow. In surface view 1 , 

 Agonal (14 ^ i n diameter), except at characteristic wl ™»*"' 

 about which they are elongated and curved. These "^' *P**° of 

 of a stoma of the common type, from which radiate ^ 



oentially elongated epidermal cells. The stomata are n 

 formly distributed and occasionally two are found in the same g 

 « gating cells. , .,. __ f thp ovan , 



On the very young fruit 



tan 



-« iorms of hairs are found (fig. 3). -^n *»~ - 

 Offering f r0 m the neighboring epidermal cells only in 



