X. 



GOURD FAMILY. 159 



2. CUCURBIT A. Tendrils 2 - 5-forked. Flowers large, with a bell-shaped or 



short fiinnel-form 6-cIeft yellow corolla, its base adherent to the bell-shaped 

 tube of the calyx. Stamens from the bottom of the flower: anthers long- 

 linear, much curved, all three united into a small head. Stigmas 3, eacli 

 2-lobed. Fruit fleshy with a firmer i-ind. Seeds mostly margined. 



3. CITBULLUS. Tendrils 2- 3-forked. Flowers with a short bell-shaped calyx- 



tube, and a deeply 5-cleft widely open pale yellow corolla. Stamens with 

 very short filaments: anthers lightly cohering. Stigmas 3, kidney-shaped. 

 Seeds marginless, imbedded in the enlarged pulpy placentae. 



» » Sterile flowers clustered, fertile ones solitary in the axils. 



4. CUCUMIS. Tendrils simple. Corolla of 5 almost separate acute petals. 



Stamens separate: anthers with only one bend. Stigmas 3, blunt. Fruit 

 with a fleshy rind. Seeds not margined. 



§ 2. Floicers small, one or both sorts in racemes, panicles, or corymbs. 



« Ovules and seeds many, horizontal, on 3 placentce: jilamenis separate: anthers 

 straightish : tendrils simple : fruit a small berry. 



5. MELOTHEIA. Flowers yellow or greenish, the sterile in small racemes, the 



fertile solitary on a long and slender peduncle. Corolla open bell-shaped, 

 5-cleft. Anthers slightly united, soon separate. Fertile flower with calyx- 

 tube constricted above the ovary. 



« itt Ovules and seeds 1-4, large and vertical: filaments monadelphous : anthers 

 tortutms: tendrils ^forked: fruit prickly or bristly. 



6. ECHINOCYSTIS. Flowers white, the sterile in compound racemes or pani- 



cles, the fertile solitary or in small clusters from the same axils. Corolla 

 wheel-shaped, of 6 narrow petals united -at the base. Anthers more or less 

 united in a mass. Style hardly any: stigma broad. Fruit oval or roundish, 

 beset with weak simple prickles, bursting irregularly at the top when ripe; 

 the outer part fleshy under the thin green rind, becoming dry; the inner part 

 a fibrous net-work making 2 oblong cells, each divided at the base into trvvo 

 1-seeded compartments. Seeds large, blackish, hard-coated, erect from the 

 base of the fruit. 



7. SICYOS. Flowers greenish-white, the sterile in corymbs or panicles, the fer- 



tile {very small) in a little head on a long peduncle, mostly from the same 

 axils. Corolla nearly wheel-shaped, 5-cleft. Anthers short, united in a little 

 head. Style slender : stigmas 3. Ovary tapering into a narrow neck below 

 the rest of the flower, 1-celled, becoming a dry and indehiscent, ovate or 

 flattish-spindle-shaped, bur-like fruit, beset with stifi' and barbed bristles, 

 filled by the single hanging seed. 



1. LAGENABIA, BOTTLE GOURD. (From the Latin lagena, a bottle. ) 

 L. vulgS,ris, CoMMOx Gourd, Calabash. Cult, from Africa and Asia; 



climbing freely, rather clammy-pubescent and musky-scented, with rounded 

 leaves, long-stalked floAvers, white petals greenish- veiny, and fruit of very various 

 shape, usually club-shaped, or long and mucji enlarged at the apex and slightly 

 at base, the hard rind used for vessels, dippers, &c. ® 



2. CUCURBITA, PUMPKIN and SQUASH. (Latin name.) The 

 very numerous cultivated forms, strikingly different in their fruit, have been 

 reduced to three botanical species, l.C. Pepo, 2. C. maxima, 3. C. moschata, 

 which answer to the following sections. These all ®. 



§ 1. Stalks and somewhat lohed leaves rovgh-brisily, almost mickl ij : flower-stalks 

 obtusely angled, that of the fruit stronyly 5 - 8-ridgea and loith ititervenimj 

 deep grooves, usuallt/ enlarging next the fruit : hollow interior of the fruit 

 traversed by coarse and separate sof) or pulpy threads. 

 C. P6po, Pumpkin. Cult., as now along with Indian Com, by the North 

 American Indians before the jcoming of the whites ; large round fruit mostly- 

 yellow, smooth, the flesh not hardening. 



C. ovifera, Okange-Goued, Egg-Gourd, &c. : so called from tjio small, 

 orange-like, egg-shaped or pear-shaped, yellow or white or variegated fruit, used 

 for ornament : wild in Texas, probably the original of all this groiip. 



