isicyos.] XXXII. CUCUEBITACEAE. 183 



short. Weak prostrate or climbing herbs, rarely woody. Leaves exstipulate, 



alternate, usually palmately veined and lobed or divided. Flowers unisexual or 



hermaphrodite. 



A large order, comprising about 60 genera and 500 species, chiefly found in tropical countries, 

 and including the rook-melon, cucumber, luffa, water-melon, pumpkin, &c. 



1. SICYOS, Linn. 



Male flowers racemed. Calyx campanulate with 5 minute subulate teeth. 

 Corolla deeply 5-lobed. Filaments 3—5, coherent into a short column ; anthers 

 confluent. Female flowers panicled. Ovary inferior, 1 -celled ; ovule 1, pen- 

 dulous. Fruit small, coriaceous, indehiscent, 1 -seeded, clothed with bai'bed 

 spines. Annual creeping or climbing plants. Leaves angular. Tendrils 

 branched. Flowers monoecious. 



A small tropical and subtropical genus. Etym. An old Greek name for the cucumber. 



1. S. angulata, L., Sp. PI. 1013. Stems prostrate or climbing, 2ft.- 



10ft. in length or more, nearly glabrous or more or less scabrid. Leaves 



broadly ovate-cordate or subreniform, palmately 5— 7-lobed, the central lobe the 



longest, usually acute, toothed. Tendrils petiolate, branched. Male flowers 



racemose, on long peduncles. Female flowers sessile or on very short peduncles. 



Petals equalling the sepals. Fruits ovoid, spinous, compressed, 1-seeded. — G. 



Forst., Prod. n. 368; A. Rich., Fl. N.Z. 323; Hook, f., Fl. N.Z. i. 72; 



Handbk. 82; Benth., Fl. Austr. iii. 32. S. australis, Endl., Prod. Fl. Norf. 



n. 134 ; A. Cunn., Precurs. n. 360. S. fretensis, Hook. f. in Lond. Journ. 



Bot. vi. 473. 



From the Kermadeo and Three Kings Islands southward to Hawke's Bay ; Great and Little 

 Barrier Islands. SOUTH Island: Queen Charlotte Sound, Banks and Sol. Mawhai. Dec. to 

 March. Also in North and South America, Polynesia, Australia, Lord Howe Island, and Norfolk 

 Island. 



On the outlying islands of New Zealand this plant has broadly-rounded reniform leaves, with 

 a deep sinus ; on the mainland the middle lobe is produced into a long acute or acuminate point. 



Oedee XXXIII.-PICOIDEAE. 



Calyx persistent, 4- or many-lobed or rarely divided to the base. Petals 

 4 or 5 or indefinite and narrous, rarely 0, perigynous or epigynous, rarely 

 hypogynous. Filaments free or united at the base. Ovary inferior or superior, 

 3—5 -celled or more, rarely 2-celled ; styles as many as the ovary-cells, free or 

 connate; ovules solitary or numerous. Fruit capsular or fleshy or drupaceous, 

 opening in as many or twice as many valves as cells. Seeds with mealy endo- 

 sperm, usually compressed ; embryo curved or annular, succulent. Erect, pros- 

 trate, or creeping herbs, rarely sufllruticose, with opposite or alternate exstipulate 

 leaves and regular unisexual or hermaphrodite flowers. 



A large order, widely dispersed through tropical and subtropical regions. Geneea, about 24. 

 Species, nearly 500. 



1. Mesembryanthemum. Leaves angular. Petals numerous. 



2. Teteagonia. Leaves flat, petioled. Petals 0. 



