CUCURBITALS. 363 
lobed foliage, pulpy fruit with parictal placente. The group compre- 
hends the Melon, Cucumber, Colocynth, Bryony, and other genera, 
of which Dr. Royle remarks that “they afford large and juicy 
fruit in the midst of the Indian desert and on the sandy islands 
of Indian rivers ; nor does ive moisture appear to be injurious, 
as the majority of them are cultivated in the rainy season, and even 
on the bed of weeds floating on the Cashmere lakes.” Two 
principles pervade them; the one saccharine and nutritious, the other 
bitter, acrid, and purgative. In the Melon, the Gourd, and their 
allies, the first exist almost exclusively; but even here accompanied in 
some degree by a laxative principle. In the Colocynth, Bottle 
Gourd, and in some of the Luffa and Bryony, the bitter principle is 
strongly concentrated. 
The native country of the Melon is doubtful, although Linnzus 
places it in Tartary. To the Cucumber the same nativity is ascribed, 
but in each case without corroborative authority. The Colocynth . 
Gourd, yielding the well-known medicine, grows wild in Egypt and 
the countries of the Grecian Archipelago. The Water Melon, Cucu- 
mis citrullus, is extensively cultivated all over Indian and tropical 
countries of Africa and America. 
The Cucursrracex embracing the Cucumber, Melon, and some 
kinds of Gourd, are species of the Cucumis. Their forms vary 
considerably. Their culture appears to be as ancient in Asia as that 
of the most ancient of vegetables. Their characteristics are: the 
flowers monecious, the male flowers solitary, growing at the axils 
of the leaves, or more often fasciculated by the contraction of the 
fommon peduncle, the calyx ¢ylindrical, hollow, and campanu- 
late, with five toothed and five ovoid acute and spreading petals. 
1ere are three free stamens, two being entire, binocular, the other 
unilocular, with anther-celled flexuoils, a prolonged connective above 
the anthers, having a soft oblong superficial gland, simple in the one 
stamen, unilocular or bifid in the others. The female flowers are 
solitary, and composed of a fine dentate calyx, a corolla analogous 
fo that of the flower stamens, with an inferior three-celled 
ovary, surmounted by a short style with three thick stigmata. 
The Ovarium was originally unilocular, with three parietal pla- 
Cente, charged each with two series of ovules, which are advanced 
the centre of the cavity, where they are reunited, and 
- 
