46 Some hitherto unknown Australian Plants. 



the nerves and veins imperfectly hispidulous, otherwise sca- 

 brous-downy. Tendrils 1^-3 inches long, upwards spiral. 

 Flowers monoecious, a few congregated and arising from the 

 leaf-axis, with short peduncles. Lobes of the calyx 1-1^ line 

 long, appressed ; tube villose, in the male flowers longer than 

 the lobes. Corolla yellow, deeply five-cleft, inside glabrous, 

 outside slightly downy or a little hispid; the lobes ovate, 

 apiculate, \-% inch long. Stamens of the male flowers gyrose, 

 connate with the rudimentary pistil; anthers 5, in 2^ pairs, 

 almost sigmoid. Disk of the female flower yellow, patellar. 

 Style green, smooth, upwards thickened. Stigmas three, 

 greenish, scarcely longer than 1 line, nearly ovate, flat in 

 front, convex at the back, each separable into two. Rudi- 

 mentary stamens wanting. Pepo rather sweet, of a pleasant 

 taste, exactly egg-shaped, irregularly six-celled, scarcely 

 longer than one inch, not angular, simply green, covered with 

 very minute almost powdery hair, which causes an acrid irri- 

 tant sensation to the taste, but are almost spontaneously lost 

 in age, when the fruit assumes a pale colour. Seeds ovate- 

 cuneate, about 2\ lines long, surrounded by a slightly tumid 

 margin. 



This cucumber is the Cucumis pubescens mentioned in Sir 

 Th. Mitchell's Trop. Austr., p. 110, but evidently not the 

 true Willdenowian plant, as pointed out in the report on Mr. 

 Gregory's plants from Cooper's Creek. The genuine may 

 be sought, perhaps, in the following species. It is possible 

 that the C. pubescens of Asa Gray, Unit. Stat. Expl. Exped., 

 p. 646, belongs to this species. 



Cucumis picrocarpa. 



Leaves in circumference cordate, 3-5 lobed, their lobes 

 repand- denticulate, somewhat angular; petioles as long as 

 the leaf, or at last somewhat longer; tendrils undivided, 

 everywhere hispidulous; lobes of the calyx filiform-linear; 

 ovary villous- woolly ; fruit sub trigonal- ovate, with some mi- 

 nute scattered bristles, not half as long as the peduncle, 

 which is tumid at the apex ; seeds very numerous, many times 

 shorter than the fruit- diameter ; funicle long. 



In many parts of tropical Australia. 



It differs from the preceding, besides in the above charac- 

 ters, also in the lobes of the calyx and corolla, which are of 

 twice the size, in finely white-and-grey-spotted fruit, which 

 is constantly 2-3 inches long, regularly six-celled, of ex- 



