2 i ( I CUCURBITACEAE. 



or panicles, the pistillate pedicellate and solitary in the same axils. Calyx- 

 teeth very small or obsolete. Corolla rotate or campanulate with 5 to 7 lobes 

 or lanceolate segments. Staminate flowers with the short filaments united and 

 the a nt hers distinct or coherent. Pistillate flowers with capillary staminodia 

 or cone; ovary globose or oblong, 2 to 4-celled, with 1 to 4 ovules in each 

 cell; style very short; stigmas 2 or 3-parted or -lobed. Fruit prickly, some- 

 what fleshy or pulpy, at length dry and bursting irregularly on the sides or 

 near the apex. Seeds ovoid or broadly oblong, more or less compressed, sur- 

 rounded by a marginal line. (Greek echinos, a hedgehog, and kustis, a blad- 

 der, in reference to the spiny fruit. Our species are all perennial from ex- 

 ceedingly large, often deep-seated, fusiform or globose roots, sometimes as 

 large as and not unlike the shape of a man's body, whence the common name, 

 ' ' Old Man in the Ground." The germination of the seed is peculiar; see 

 Gray, Structural Botany, p. 21.) 



Corolla rotate, dull or greenish white; pistillate flowers without abortive stamens 



1. E. fabacea. 

 Corolla campanulate, clear white. 



Pistillate flowers with abortive stamens, the pedicels 3 to 6 lines long 2. E. marah. 



Pistillate flowers without abortive stamens, the pedicels 1 to 2 in. long.... 3. E. watsonii. 



1. E. fabacea Naud. Common Man Eoot. Stems 12 to 30 ft. long; nearly 

 glabrous or rough-scabrous; leaves more or less round-cordate in outline. 2 to 

 4 in. in diameter, with a deep and open sinus at base, mostly rather deeply 5 

 to 7-lobed, often with acutish segments; staminate flowers many in slender 

 simple or compound racemes S 1 ,^ to 5 in. long, the pedicels 1 to 3 lines long; 

 corolla 3 to 4 lines in diameter, of a dull or greenish white; pistillate flowers 5 

 to 6 lines broad, destitute of abortive stamens, the pedicels 5 to 9 lines long; 

 ovary globose, 2-celled, ovules 1 or 2 in each cell; fruit globose, 2 in. in 

 diameter, very densely covered with stout spines 4 to 12 lines long; seeds 

 commonly 4, sometimes less, oblong-ovoid, 9 to 13 lines long, 6 lines in 

 diameter, surrounded by a shallow groove or darker lines. — (Megarrhiza cal- 

 if ornica Torr.) 



The most common species, growing upon open hills or climbing in thickets; 

 in some localities still very abundant on rich sandy ridges (high places) of 

 interior grain fields: Coast Eanges; Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. 

 The var. A.GBESTIS Greene, of eastern Contra Costa Co., is described as having 

 smaller fruits with few short spines. E. macrocarpa Greene (the Chilicothe) 

 has a very spiny oblong pod 4 in. long. — Kaweah River basin to Southern 

 California. 



2. E. marah Cogn. Hill Man Root. Stems 4 to 25 ft. long, mostly 

 smooth; leaves muriculate-scabrous, especially on the upper surface, or almosl 

 glabrous, reniform or round-cordate, 3 to 7 in. broad, 2 to 4 in. long, 5 to 

 7-lobed with round sinuses; staminate inflorescence 6 to 10 in. long, the corolla 

 6 1" 7 lines broad, clear white; pistillate flowers with abortive stamens (stam- 

 inodia), the pedicels 3 to 6 lines long, or in fruit to 1% in. long; ovary 

 ovate, 2 or 3-celled; ovules 1 to 4 or more in each cell, attached to the outer 

 side of the cell; fruit ovate-oblong, 2% to 3VL> in. long, somewhat attenuate 

 a i each end. particularly al apex, nearly smooth or muricate with short weak 

 apines; seeds horizontally placed, nearly round, flattened, about 1 in. long, 

 rather less than ' _. in. thick.- (Megarrhiza marah Wats.) 



Hills of Marin, Alameda and Contra Costa cos., often climbing over shrubs 



and trees. 



