Lufa.] Cucurbitacetz. 251: 



basal lobes rounded, usually shallowly cut into 3 or 5 acute 

 lobes, slightly dentate, very roughly hairy on both sides, 

 petiole stout, often as long as 1., deeply sulcate above, often 

 much twisted, very harsh with prickly hairs ; fl. shortly stalked, 

 fin. wide; cal.-limb campanulate, very hairy, segm. setaceous; 

 pet. united for about \ up, rounded; male fl. : — anth. small, 

 connate; fem. fl. : — cal.-tube constricted above o v., o v. ovoid, 

 with scattered, bulbous-based, bristly, deciduous hairs; fruit 

 ovoid-globose, slightly trigonous on section, about \\ in. by ij 

 wide, quite glabrous, obscurely striped with dark and light 

 green, solid, fleshy, with 3 partitions ; seeds very numerous, 

 horizontal, narrowly ovoid, compressed, smooth. 



Waste ground in the low country; common. Fl. Aug., Sept.; yellow. 



Throughout India and Malaya. 



The name of this is very doubtful ; the fruit is always quite glabrous. 

 It appears to be a native, and may be the wild original of C. satzvus, L., 

 the cucumber, or C. Melo, L., the melon. Cogniaux refers C. P. 3534 to 

 the former (but the fruit is at all stages quite without spines or tubercles); 

 but he puts C. pubescens. Willd., to the latter. (Under C. Melo he quotes 

 by error C. P. 1 104, which is a Trianthema.) Good figures of some of 

 the Indian cultivated forms of C. Melo and C. sativus will be found in 

 Duthie, Crops, tt. 49-54. 



The fruit is too bitter to be eaten, but is used in medicine. The plant 

 is never cultivated. 



6. IUFPA,* Cav. 



Large annual herbs, stems angled, tendrils 3-fid, 1. pal- 

 mately lobed, fl. large, monoecious, male in long racemes, fem-. 

 solitary from same axil ; cal.-limb cup-shaped, segm. 5, lan- 

 ceolate, acuminate; pet. connate for more than half way up, 

 obovate-oblong; male fl.: — stam. 3 or 5, anth. distinct, cells 

 sigmoid ; fem. fl. : — cal. contracted above ov., ov. long-oblong, 

 style short, thick, stigmas large; fruit large, ovoid-oblong, 

 fibrous when ripe, not very succulent, 3-celled, indehiscent; 

 seeds numerous, ovoid, compressed. — Sp. 10; 5 in Fl. B.Ind. 



Stam. 5; fruit not ridged 1. L. ^gyptiaca. 



Stam. 3 ; fruit sharply 10-ridged . . . .2. L. ACUTANGULA. 



1. *Xu aeg-yptiaca, Mill. Diet. ed. 8 (1768). Niyan-weta-kolu, 

 S. Pikku, Pichukku, T. 



L. eylindricn, Roem., Moon Cat. 66. L. ftentandra, Roxb., Thw. 

 Enum. 126. C. P. 2805. 



FL B. Ind. ii. 614. Wight, Ic. t. 499 (L. pentandra). Duthie, Crops, 



Stems very stout, 5-angled, twisted, slightly pubescent, 

 Luffa, from the Egyptian or Arabian name often spelt ' Loofah.' 



