GOURD FAJIILY tSc) 



some points on the south-west coast. — PI. July — September. 

 Biennial. 



4. Ciut.E.v (Enchanter's Nightshade).— Slender, erect herbs 

 with creeping rhizomes; kaves opposite, stalked, toothed; 

 Jlou'crs in racemes, small, white, 2-mer6us ; sc/'a/s reflc.\ed, 

 deciduous ; s/yk slender ; s/i[^-ijia :-lobed ; ovules 1 or 2 ; f?iiit 

 indehiscent, covered with hooked bristles. (Name from Circe, 

 the enchantress who bewitched Ulysses and,his companions.) 



T. C. Iiiteiidiia (Common Enchanter's: Night.shade). — A 

 slender herbaceous plant, pubescent with glandular hairs, i — 2 

 feet high, with round-stalked, ovate, spreading, dull leaves, and 

 loose terminal and lateral racemes of nu'nuj.e \\\\\le. flowers, with 

 pink stamens, succeeded by 2-lobed bristl)'/}7///.f. -Damp shady 

 places ; common, often a troublesome iveed in damp gardens. — 

 Fl, June — August. Perennial. 



2. C. alpina (Alpine Enchanter's Nightshade). — Closely re- 

 sembling the last, but smaller, not exceeding 8 in. in height, 

 less hairy, less branched ; leaves cordate, shining, more deeply- 

 toothed, and with flat stalks. They are ^o delicate as to be 

 nearly transparent when dried, 'i'he fruit is less bristly and i- 

 seeded. — ^fountainous woods in the north.-- Fl. July, August. 

 Perennial. 



Ori>. XXXIII. CucuREiTACE.E. — The Gourd Family 



A large and important Order, chiefly tropical, but having only 

 one British representative. They are herbac'eous plants with juicy 

 steins, climbing by means of tendrils ; scattered, exstipulate leaves 

 which are usually lobed and rough; ■pti\Xd.m<iio\\s floivers which 

 are often large, yellow, red, or white, and imperfect ; and fruit 

 either a berry or a gourd (pepo), horny eNternally «hen ripe. 

 The calyx is superior and 5-toothed ; the corolla so united to the 

 calyx-tube as to be sometimes scarcely distinguishable ; the 5, 

 more or less united, stamens, with twistedf anthers, in distinct 

 flowers from the i-chambered ovary of 3 united carpels, either on 

 the same plant (moncecious) or on different plants (dicecious). 

 The style is short, the stigmas are thick, loBed and velvet)-, and 

 the seeds flat. A great number of species are cultivated in Europe 

 either for use or ornainent. Many of them ^re bitter and violent 

 purgatives, of which the common medicinal Colocynth {Cifn'illus 

 Coloevnthls) is an example. This species be'ars an oval fruit of a 

 very bitter taste, and grows in sandy and desert places. It is 

 almost certainly the wild cucumber mentioned in 2 Kings iv. ,^9, 

 40, as it still grows in profusion at Gilgal, and as its leaves, ten- 



