238 CUCURBITAO^. circ^a. 



valved, with a single erect seed in each cell, hispid with hooks. 1 

 hairs. 



C. Paciflca Aaoh.&Mag. Mostly glabrous, stems usually simple, 

 6-12 inches high, from a small tuber; leaves ovate, rounded or cordate at 

 base, acute or acuminate, repandly-denticulate, 1-3 inches long; the slen- 

 der petiole about as long; racemes without bracts; flowers half a line long; 

 calyx white with a very short tube; fruit a line lopg, rather loosely covered 

 with soft hairs curved above, 1-celled, 1-seeded. In damp woods, Brit. 

 Columbia to California. 



C. alpina L. Sp. 9. Glabrous, stems weat, 3-8 inches high, often 

 branching above: leaves cordate, shining, rather coarsely toothed, 1-6 

 inches long, on slender petioles nearly as long as the blade : pedicels sub- 

 tended by minute setaceous bracts-: flowers reddish, especially before 

 opening : fruit piubescent but scarcely hispid. In damp woods, Alaska to 

 Washington and the Northeastern States and Canada. 



Obdeb XXXIX. CUCURBIT ACE^ B. Juss.Hort.Trian.(1759.) 



Tendril- bearing herbs with alternate palmately veined leaves 

 and axillary monoecious or dioecious, rarely perfect flowers. 

 Calyx o-6-toothed, the limb sometimes obsolete. Petals 5-6, 

 distinct or more or less united with each other and coherent 

 with the calyx. Stamens 5, sometimes distinct, commonly- 

 xmjted in three parcels f'two, and two and one separate j so as 

 to appear like three stamens only, rarely 3 and diadelphous, fila- 

 ments of each set sometimes connate; anthers usually long and 

 sinuous, or variously contorted or folded-, 2-celled, adnate, ex- 

 trorse, commonly more or less connate. Ovary coherent with the 

 tube of the calyx, usually of 3, rarely of 2 or 4, united carpels, 

 sometimes 1-celled by the obliteration of the partitions, more 

 often with each carpel spuriously 2-celled. Fruit fleshy or 

 juicy, rarely membranous. Seeds anatropous, compressed,, 

 often enveloped by a juicy or dry and membranous arillus; 

 the testa coriaceous, albumen none. 



MAEAH Kell. Proc. Cal. Acad, i, 38. 



MEQARRHIZA {Torr:) Watson. 



Flowers monoecious : the sterile in racemes or panicles ; the 

 fertile solitary, from the same axils. Calyx-tube broadly cam- 

 pa nu late: teeth obsolete or very small. Corolla rotate, deeply 

 5-7-lobed, with oblong papillose segments. Sterile flowers with 

 the stamens at the base: filaments short and connate: anthers 

 free or somewhat adherent; the cells somewhat horizontal, flex- 

 uous. Pistillate flowers pedicelled: with or without abortive 

 stamejis: ovary oblong to globose, usually more or less echinate, 

 2-celled or more: cells 1-several-ovuled : ovules ascending, hoii- 

 zontal, or pendulous, the attachment mostly parietal : style 

 short : stigma 2-3 lobed or parted. Fruit mostly echinate, more 

 or less fibrous within, becoming dry, at length bursting regu- 



