•Chap.'X. CUCURBITACEOUS PLANTS. 359 



referring to the species of Cucurbita, says, " au milieu de toutes les varia- 

 tions du fruit, les tiges, les feuilles, les calices, les corolles, les etamines 

 restent invariables dans chacune d'elles." Yet M. Naudin in describing 

 Cucurbita pepo (p. 30) says, " Ici, d'ailleurs, ce ne sont pas seulement les 

 fruits qui varient, c'est aussi le feuillage et tout le port de la plante. 

 Neanmoins, je crois qu'on la distinguera toujours facilement des deux autres 

 especes, si Ton veut ne pas perdre de vue les caracteres differentiels que je 

 m'efforce de faire ressortir. Ces caracteres sont quelquefois peu marques : 

 il arrive meme que plusieurs d'entre eux s'effacent presque entierement, 

 mais il en reste toujours quelques-uns qui remettent l'observateur sur la 

 voie." Now let it be noted what a difference, with regard to the immuta- 

 bility of the so-called specific characters, this paragraph produces on the 

 mind, from that above quoted from M. Godron. 



I will add another remark : naturalists continually assert that no im- 

 portant organ varies ; but in saying this they unconsciously argue in a 

 vicious circle ; for if an organ, let it be what it may, is highly variable, 

 it is regarded as unimportant, and under a systematic point of view this 

 is quite correct. But as long as constancy is thus taken as the criterion of 

 importance, it will indeed be long before an important organ can be shown 

 to be inconstant. The enlarged form of the stigmas, and their sessile 

 position on the summit of the ovary, must be considered as important 

 characters, and were used by Gasparini to separate certain pumpkins as 

 a distinct genus; but Naudin says (p. 20) these parts have no constancy, 

 and in the flowers of the Turban varieties of 0. maxima they sometimes 

 resume their ordinary structure. Again, in 0. maxima, the carpels (p. 19) 

 which form the Turban project even as much as two-thirds of their length 

 out of the receptacle, and this latter part is thus reduced to a sort of 

 platform ; but this remarkable structure occurs only in certain varieties, 

 and graduates into the common form in which the carpels are almost entirely 

 enveloped within the receptacle. In C. moschata the ovarium (p. 50) 

 varies greatly in shape, being oval, nearly spherical, or cylindrical, more 

 or less swollen in the upper part, or constricted round the middle, and 

 either straight or curved. When the ovarium is short and oval the 

 interior structure does not differ from that of G. maxima and pepo, but 

 when it is elongated the carpels occupy only the terminal and swollen 

 portion. I may add that in one variety of the cucumber (Cucumis sativus) 

 the fruit regularly contains five carpels instead of three. 140 I presume that 

 it will not be disputed that we here have instances of great variability in 

 organs of the highest physiological importance, and with most plants of the 

 highest classificatory importance. 



Sageret 141 and Naudin found that the cucumber (0. sativus) could not be 

 crossed with any other species of the genus; therefore no doubt it is 

 specifically distinct from the melon. This will appear to most persons 

 a superfluous statement; yet we hear from Naudin 142 that there is a race 



140 Naudin, in ' Annal. des Sci. Nat.,' »<s < Flore des Serres,' Oct. 1861, 

 4th ser. Bot. torn. xi. 1859, p. 28. quoted in ' Gardener's Chronicle,' 1861, 



141 ' Me'moire sur les Cucurbitace'es,' p. 1135. I have also consulted and 

 1826, pp. 6, 24. taken g ; me factg from M. Naudin's 



