118 Plants Collected in Paraguay. 



erties as the Maraona, if anything even more active in dissolving- 

 meat fibres. The name Jacaratia is applied by the natives to this 

 species, although it is not the true Jacaratia. A native of Para- 

 guay, and common around Asuncion as well as Villa Rica. 



CUCURBITACEJi]. 



Named by A. Cognieux. 



Momordica Charantia, L., var. abbreviata, Ser. in D.C. Prod., 

 iii, 311. 



Asuncion (45). November-May. 



This vine is one of the most noticeable plants in the suburbs 

 of Asuncion, climbing in thick masses over fences and shrubs to 

 the height of 5 or 6 m. or more. Stem slender, glabrous, much 

 branched. Leaves glabrous, deeply 5-cleft, the lobes broadened at 

 the top and irregularly lobed or toothed. Flowers small, yellow, 

 axillary, on long capillary peduncles. They are monoecious as in 

 other Cucurbit aceae, but instead of there being first a pistillate and 

 then a staminate flower on the stem, those of one kind are on one 

 branch, and the other on a difi*erent branch. The fruit is especially 

 conspicuous. The ovary is green, covered with rows of spiny 

 ])rojections, running up into a long point upon which the flower is 

 seated, 3 celled, several ovules in each cell, with a thick fleshy pulp. 

 In the fruit 1, or sometimes 2, of these cells become abortive, and 

 the ovary develops into a large, angular, oval body clothed with 

 tubercles and spiny protuberances, which finally turns yellow, the 

 pulp of which decays, leaving in the shrivelled shell 12-20 red flat- 

 tish seeds, which stick like mucilage to each other and everything 

 which they touch. These pepos hang on long, pendent peduncles, 

 and at once attract attention. The roots are large, woody and 

 tough, and are said to possess valuable medicinal properties, and 

 similar virtues are attributed to the fruit. The pulp is quite nause- 

 ous both to the touch and taste. 



Melotliria Cucumis, Veil., Flor. Flum., i, t. 70, 29 ? 



Pilcomayo River (1506). 



A vine climbing 6 m. or more by tendrils in thickets. Leaves 

 cordate, 4 or 5 inches in diameter, smooth, palmately 5-cleft, the 2 

 lower lobes hanging downwards below the others, all the lobes 

 sparsely angled or toothed. Fruit oval, nearly as large as a hen's 

 ^g^, blotched with white and green. 



