104 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Voi.,VITI. 
From the above remarks it will be amply apparent that there is a 
considerable difficulty in confirming and finally establishing the syno- 
nyms of C. trigonus, It seems to be absolutely necessary to remove 
all this confusion by a fresh and exhaustive attempt at identifying the 
plants and renaming them after a careful examination locally of every 
species belonging to the Cucurbitaceous order. One thing must be 
remembered particularly, with a view to obtain a thoroughly accurate 
description. The Cucurbitaceous plants are extremely delicate, espe- 
cially as regards their hairy appendages. They must therefere be 
- examined én situ—in the places where they grow ; not certainly from 
dried specimens, nor even from fresh specimens taken to a distance 
and examined leisurely, perhaps long after the delicate hairs have 
withered or fallen off, and thus destroyed the minuter distinguishing 
marks so necessary for accurate identification. 
As regards the root of C. trigonus Clarke (in Hooker’s Flora of 
British India loc. cit.) remarks that from the perennial character of the 
root of C. trigonus alone can it be distinguished from C. melo accord- 
ing to Naudin, but, says Clarke, “the examples seen and cojlected in 
India are almost invariably less than one year old.” (N. B.—The italics 
are mine.—K. R. K.) Asa matter of fact, it is notso. I have seen 
the plants growing wild in the jungles and hedges of Thana 
and I have observed the same root throwing out fresh sprouts every — 
rainy season for years together. The plant.dries up after the mon- 
soons and the fruit may be gathered even in the hot weather follow 
ing. The plant is so persistent that the fruit can be seen hanging on 
the dry creeper even when every other part of the creeper withers 
and dries up. The fact of the fruit remaining hanging fresh as ever 
“even in the succeeding hot weather, is, I admit, no indication whatever 
of the living condition of the root underground. But wait till the 
next rainy season, and you will find a fresh plant from the old root, 
from where the creeper of the former rainy season sprouted. The root 
does not dry up, decay or die, even although the surrounding soil is 
parched and cracked in the hot weather, with hardly any moisture 
to nourish it. The perennial nature of the root, therefore, must be 
considered undeniable, even under such adverse circumstances, 
With regard to the flowering of C. trigonus Rheede observes (Hor- 
tus Ind. Mal., Vol. VIUL, page 21) that the plant grows in jungles 
