GOURD FAMILY. 139 



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



short funnel-form 6-cleft 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, each 

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



3. CITKULLUS. Tendrils 2-3-forkod. Flowers with a short bell-shaped calyx- 



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

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

 Seeds inarginless, imbedded in the enlarged pulpy placentse. 



• • Sterile flowers clustered, fertile ones solilary in the axils. 



4. CUCUJUS. 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 corjjmba. 



* Ooules and seeds mnny, liorizontal, on 3 placenlce: fllciments separate: anthers 

 straiffhtish : tendrils simple ; fruit a small ber'ry. 



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



fei'tile solitary on a long and slender peduncle. Corolla open bell-shaped, 

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

 tube constricted above the ovary. 



« * Oimles and seeds 1-4, Ictrf^e ajid vertical; fiUiments monadelphous : anthers 

 tortuous : tendrils '^-forked; fruit prickly or bristly. 



6. ECHINOCYS ITS. Flowere white, the steHle 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 cb'y ; the inner part 

 .a fibrous net-work making 2 oblong cells, each divided at the base hito two 

 i-s'eeded 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 oii a long peduncle, mostly from the same 

 axils. Corolla nearly wheel-shaped, 5-cleft. Anthers short, united inji 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 

 fliittish-spindle-shaped, bur-like fruit, beset with stiff and barbed bristles, 

 filled by the single hanging seed. 



1. LAGENAKIA, BOTTLE GOURD. (From the Latin %em, a bottle.) 

 . L. vulgaris, CoMMo:* Gourd, Calabash. Cult, from Africa and Asia; 



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

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

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

 at base, the hard rind used for vessels, dippers, &c. (T) . , - 



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

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

 reduced to three botanical species, 1:C. Pepo, 2. C. maxima, 3. C. moschata, 

 which answer to the following sections. These all ®. 



§ 1. Stalks and somewhat lolvd leaves rouffh-bristli/, almost pnclcly : flower-stalks 



oblMsdy angled, that of tlie fruit stronyly 5 - S-ridged and ivith interveninr/ 



deep grooves, usually enlarging next the fruit : liollow interior of tlie fruit 



traversed by coarse and separate soft or pulpy threads. 



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



American Indians before the coming of the whites ; largo round fruit mostly 



yellow, smooth, the flesh not hardening. 



, C. oyifera, Orange-Gourd, Egg-Gourd, &c. ; so called from the small, 

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

 iox ornament : wild in Texas, probably the original of all this group. 



