238 CUCURBITACE. circjea. 



valved, with a single erect seed in each cell, hispid with hooke .1 

 hairs. 



C. Paciflca Asch. & Mag. Mostly glabrous, stems usually simple, 

 6-12 inches high, from a small tuber; leaves ovate, rounded or cordate at 

 "base, acute or acuminate, repandly-denticulate, 1-3 inches long; the slen- 

 der petiole about as long; racemes without bracts; flowers half a line long; 

 calyx white with a very short tube; fruit a line long, rather loosely covered 

 with soft hairs curved above, 1-celled, 1-seeded. In damp woods. Brit. 

 Columbia to California. 



C. alpina L. Sp. 9. Glabrous, stems weaK, 3-8 inches high, often 

 branching above: leaves cordate, shining, rather coarsely toothed, 1-6 

 inches long, on slender petioles nearly as long as the blade : pedicels sub- 

 tended by minute setaceous bracts : flowers reddish, especially before 

 opening: fruit pubescent but scarcely hispid. In damp woods, Alaska to 

 Washington and the Northeastern States and Canada. 



Order XXXIX. CUCUKBITACE^ B. Juss.Hort.Trian.(1759.) 



Tendril-bearing herbs with alternate palmately veined leaves 

 and axillary monoecious or dioecious, rarely perfect flowers. 

 Calyx 5-6-toothed, the limb sometimes obsolete. Petals 5-6, 

 distinct or more or less united with each other and coherent 

 with the calyx. Stamens 5, sometimes distinct, commonly 

 united in three parcels (two, and two and one separate ) so as 

 to appear like three stamens only, rarely 3 and diadelphous, fila- 

 ments of each set sometimes connate; anthers usually long and 

 sinuous, or variously contorted or folded, 2-celled, adnate, ex- 

 trorse, commonly more or less connate. Ovary coherent with the 

 tube of the calyx, usually of 3, rarely of 2 or 4, united carpels, 

 sometimes 1-celled by the obliteration of the partitions, more 

 often with each carpel spuriously 2-celled. Fruit fleshy or 

 juicy, rarely membranous. Seeds a~aatropous, compressed, 

 often enveloped by a juicy or dry and membranous arillus; 

 the testa coriaceous, albumen none. 



MABAH Kell. Proc. Cal. Acad, i, 38. 



MEGARRHIZA (Torr.) Watson. 



Flowers monoecious : the sterile in racemes or panicles ; the 

 fertile solitary, from the same axils. Calyx-tube broadly cam- 

 panula te : teeth obsolete or very small. Corolla rotate, deeply 

 5-7-lobed, with oblong papillose segments. Sterile flowers with 

 the stamens at the base: filaments short and connate: anthers 

 free or somewhat adherent; the cells somewhat horizontal, flex- 

 nous* Pistillate flowers pedicelled : with or without abortive 

 ptamens: ovary oblong to globose, usually more or less echinate, 

 2-celled or more: cells 1-several-ovuled : ovules ascending, hori- 

 zontal, or pendulous,, the attachment mostly parietal : style 

 short : stigma 2-3 lobed or parted. Fruit mostly echinate, more 

 or less fibrous within, becoming dry, at length bursting regu- 



