WILD CUCUMBER 



WILD CUCUMBER. BALSAM-APPLE 



Echinoc^stis lobata. 



Echinocystis, from two Greek words, one meaning hedgehog and 

 the other, bladder; referring to the inflated and prickly fruit. 



A native annual vine, found in rich low grounds and beside streams, 

 throughout the North. Is cultivated for a quick cover. Summer. 



Stem. — Smooth, angular, and grooved, climbing high by means of 

 tendrils; sometimes hairy at the nodes. 



Leaves. — Alternate, petioled, palmately five-lobed, three and a half 

 inches long, about the same in width, sometimes broader; deep sinus at 

 base, veins very prominent beneath, margin obscurely serrate; lobes 

 pointed. 



Tendrils. — Opposite the leaves, three to four-branched. 



Flowers. — Monoecious; the staminate greenish-white, six-pointed 

 stars, in long, slender, compound racemes; the pistillate one or more 

 minute green flowers, consisting of calyx and pistil, in the same leaf 

 axil. 



Calyx. — Of staminate flower, bell-like, with six narrow, pointed lobes 

 alternate with the petals. 



Petals. — Six, lanceolate; united into an open, spreading, star-like 

 corolla. 



Stamens. — In staminate flowers three; anthers more or less united. 



Ovary. — Minute, two-celled; stigma broad. 



Fruit. — Oval, two inches long, fleshy at first, finally dry, clothed with 

 weak prickles, bursting at the summit, two-celled, four-seeded, the inner 

 part fibrous-netted. 



Seeds. — Large, dark, with thick, hard coat. 



The Wild Cucumber vine is often seen in cultivation climbing 

 over arbors and on fences. The foliage is not very thick nor the 

 individual leaf very large, but having started on its career the plant 

 grows xapidly, and once established, although an annual, attends 

 to its own sowing so eiSciently that there are plenty of seedlings 

 every spring. Amateurs complain that the seeds when sown do 

 not come up quickly, as indeed they do not; they are frequently 

 an entire year in the groimd before germination. This, undoubt- 

 edly, is due to the strength and thickness of the outer coat of the 



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