CUCURBITACEAE 4g]^ 



pedicelled, the male and female similar in color and size, yellow, about 2 

 cm long. Fruit various, usually cylindric, 10 to 20 cm long-, yellow when 

 matui-e, slightly tuberculate. (Fl. Filip. pi. 299 ) 



Generally cultivated for its edible fruits, fl. all the year. Cultivated in 

 all warm and tropical countries, probably a native of tropical 'Asia. 



9. MOMORDICA Linnaeus 



Slender, coarse, annual or perennial vines. Leaves cordate, undivided 

 or lobed. Flowers monoecious or dioecious, yellow or white, the females 

 solitary, peduncled, the males solitary or racemose, bracteolate or not. 

 Male flowers: Calyx-tube short, campanulate, 5-lobed. Corolla 5-partite 

 nearly to the base. Stamens 3, the anthers free, one 1-celled, the other 

 two 2-celled. Female flowers similar to the males. Ovary oblong; style 

 long; stigmas 3. Fruit globose, or oblong to lanceolate-cylindric, rugose, 

 •indehiscent or dehiscent. Seeds smooth, wrinkled, or sculptured. (Latin 

 "bite," from the bitten appearance of the seeds.) 



Species about 25, mostly 4n tropical Asia and Africa, few in America, 3 

 or 4 in the Philippines. 



A monoecious slender vine with small flowers, 12 mm long or less, and 

 oblong edible fruits 1. M. charantia 



A dioecious coarse vine with large flowers 3 to 4 cm long subtended by a 

 large bracteole, the fruits large, globose 2. M. cochinehinensis 



1. M. CHABANTIA L. Amargoso (Sp.-Fil.); Ampalaya (Tag.); Parria (II.). 

 A scandent, herbaceous, nearly or quite glabrous, annual, herbaceous 



vine, the simple tendrils up to 20 cm in length. Leaves orbicular, 2.5 to 

 10 cm in diameter, cut nearly to the base into 5 or 7, oblong-ovate, variously 

 toothed and lobed lobes, base cordate. Flowers axillary, long-peduncled, 

 yellow, the staminate flower about 12 mm long, peduncled, with an orbicular, 

 green, about 1 cm long bract at about the middle, the pistillate flowers 

 similar to the staminate ones, long-peduncled. Fruit oblong, cylindric, 

 from 2 to 3 cm in wild forms, to at least 25 cm in length in cultivated 

 .forms, pointed at both ends, ribbed, rugose.' (Fl. Filip. pi. 357.) 



In thickets and waste places, fl. all the year, also extensively cultivated 

 for its edible fruits, which are sold in the Manila Vnarkets in all seasons; 

 throughout the Philippines, cultivated and wild. Tropics of the world, 

 probably of Asiatic origin. 



2. M. cochinchinensis (Lour.) Spreng. Boyoc-boyoc (Tag.); Barbas ba- 



qu?ro (Sp.-Fil.). 



A coarse dioecious vine reaching a length of 15 m, slightly pubescent 

 or nearly glabrous, the petioles, bracteoles, and sometimes the basal leaf- 

 margins supplied with few large glands. Leaves broadly ovate, 8 to 18 

 cm long, acuminate, deeply palmately 3-lobed or sometimes entire. Male 

 flowers axillary, solitary, pedicelled, the buds enclosed by a large, green, 

 inflated bracteole which in inhabited by ants, opening at anthesis, turning 

 yellowish. Calyx nearly black, with 5 acuminate lobes, about 2 cm in 

 dianjeter. Petals pale-yellow, oblong or oblong-ovate, 3.5 to 4 cm long, 

 three with a large dark-colored blotch at the. base. Fruits large, ovoid or 

 subglobose, 8 to 12 cm in diameter, yellow, roughened with scattered, tuber- 

 cle-like spines. Seeds large, flattened, circular. 



In thickets, Pasay, near Fort McKinley, etc., fl. March-June; widely dis- 

 tributed in the Philippines. India to southern China and Malaya. 



