OUCURBITALS. 365 
appear on our tables as a condiment, under the name of Gherkins ; 
and the Cucumber, as it is now produced in gentlemen’s gardens, 
as well as in our market gardens, is a triumph of art over nature. 
Many other species of the family of the Cucurbitacee are worthy 
Fig. 388.—Male and Female Fl of the Melon, 
of an attentive examination. Among these we may mention the 
great American Gourd (C. maxima), the Pumpkin (C melopepo), 
the Gourd of St. John (C. pepo). 
The genus Citrud/us furnishes us with the Water Melon, a 
large, globular, smooth, green fruit, with a sweet and acid flavour, 
and a very refreshing odour. The Cucumis colocynthis, whose 
globular, glabrous, yellow fruit, with thin rind and very bitter 
flesh, is at once a purgative and a vomit. The Bryonia dioica, one 
Species of which, commonly known under the name, decorates our 
hedges with its charming little round, red, sometimes yellow, 
