242 Cucurbitacece. 



P.fcetida, L., is extremely common, and has spread into forest in the 

 dry country, where it has in many places quite the look of a native. It 

 is also indigenous to Tropical America, and is easily to be known by the 

 beautifully pectinate and moss-like involucre. 



P. edulis, Sims, has escaped from cultivation in the hill country. It 

 has an edible fruit which goes by the name of ' Sweet-cup ' in Jamaica. 



P. stipulata, Aubl., P. glauca, Ait. (non Kunth), is common by road- 

 sides in the montane zone as an escape from cultivation, and in places 

 quite naturalised. Native of Trop. S. America. 



We have no native species of Passiflora. 



LVIIL— CUCURBITACE^. 



HERBACEOUS, climbing by spirally twining tendrils arising 

 solitarily at the nodes by the base of the 1.; 1. alt., simple 

 (rarely compound), often palmately divided ; fl. regular, 

 unisexual, monoecious or dioecious ; male fl.: — cal.-tube usually 

 short, campanulate, segm. 5, small ; pet. 5, usually more or 

 less connate (rarely free), inserted on cal.-tube, valvate or 

 imbricate ; stam. 3 (rarely 5), inserted on cal.-tube, anth. 

 distinct or connate, one 1 -celled, two 2-celled, cells linear, 

 conduplicate or sigmoid or nearly straight; fern, fl.: — cal.-tube 

 adnate to ov. and often produced beyond it, segm. as in male ; 

 pet. as in male; staminodes 3 or 5 or none, ov. completely 

 inferior, 1 -celled, with 3 large fleshy parietal placentas often 

 meeting in centre (hence apparently 3-celled), ovules usually 

 numerous, horizontal, rarely few and pendulous, stigmas 3, 

 large ; fruit fleshy, generally indehiscent ; seeds usually 

 numerous, surrounded with pulp, no endosperm. 



The most recent account of this difficult Family is that by Cogniaux 

 in Monogr. Phanerog. iii. (1881). The cal. and pet. are often so fused 

 below that the cal. -segm. look; like appendages on the outside of a cor.- 

 tube. 



Of the 26 Ceylon species the greater part are plants of the low 

 country, and many occur in both moist and dry regions. But the latter 

 has the greater number, and Citrullus, Rhynchocarpa, Corallocarpus, 

 Ctenolepis, and Cucumis trigonus are confined to it, whilst Zanonia and 

 Zehneria hastata are restricted to the moist region. Seven of the low- 

 country species extend into the montane zone, and the following are found 

 only there : Cerasiocarpiwi, Gynostemma, Trichosanthes integrifolia, and 

 Mukia leiosperma. Only 3 specimens are endemic. 



