382 CUCUEBITACEOUS PLANTS. Chap. X. 



differentials que je m'efforee de faire ressortir. Ces 



caracteres sont quelquefois peu marques : il arrive meine que 

 plusieurs d'entre eux s'effacent presque entiereinent, 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 immutability 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 important 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 un- 

 important, 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 G. 

 maxima they sometimes resume their ordinary structure. 

 Again, in C. 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 C. 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 sat i ens') the 

 fruit regularly contains five carpels instead of three. 140 I 



140 Xaudin. in • Annal. des Sc. Nat., 5 4th ser. Bot. torn. xi. 1850, p. 28. 



