254 PRACTICAL BOTANT. 



of 4 nut-like cai-pcls, cohering by their angles. Upper flow- 

 ers usually sterile, middle ones perfect, and the lowest fertile. 



Myriophyllum (828). 

 Non-aquatic. Sterile flowers with a 4-parted calyx, 

 4 petals, a 4-rayed disk, and eight stamens. Fertile flowers 

 with a 5-parted calyx and very minute, awl-shaped rudimen- 

 tary petals ; the 3 styles 2-cleft. The latter sort capitate- 

 clustered at the base of the sterile spike, sessile in the forks 

 and terminal. Herb rough-hairy. Leaves oblong or linear- 

 oblong, obtusely toothed. Croton glandulosum, L. 



(§ Geisleria, Klotzsch.) 



805. Ovary superior. Stamens distinct. Fertile flowers 

 without a corolla. Herbs downy, woolly, or scurfy. Leaves 

 entii-e. Styles or stigmas 3, forked or 3-cleft 808 



Ovary inferior. Stamens 3-5, united more or less 

 by their (often tortuous) anthers, as well as by their filaments. 

 Succulent, tendril-bearing, climbing vines. Fruit- a sort of 

 berry, called pepo 806 



806. Corolla of the sterile and fertile flowers 5-lobed. 

 Leaves roundish-heart-shaped, S-angled, or lobed. Fruit in- 

 dehiscent 807 



Corolla of the sterile and fertile flowers flat and 

 spreading, 6-parted. Pepo prickly, 2-ceIled, 4-seeded, burst- 

 ing at the top. Leaves sharply 5-lobed. Sterile flowers in 

 compound racemes; fertile ones in small clusters or solitary; 

 from the same axil, all greenish-white. 



Echinocystis lobata, Torr. & Gr. 



807. Flowers white, strictly monoecious, the sterile and 

 fertile ones mostly from the same axils — the former corymbed, 

 the latter in globose clusters, long-peduncled. Corolla of the 

 sterile flowers flat, spreading, 5-lobed. Berry ovate, 1-seed- 

 ed, covered with barbed, prickly bristles. 



Sicyos augulatus, L. 



Flowers greenish or yellowish, monoeciously-poly- 



gamous ; the sterile with a bell-shaped, 5-lobed corolla, few 



in small racemes, the fertile solitary. Berry (^-1 inch long), 



green, smooth, many-seeded. 



(507) Melothria pendula, L 



808. Flowers spiked or glomerate. Styles 3, twice- or 

 thrice-cleft, or 2, and 2-parted. Ovary 3- (or 2-) celled. Pod 



