Gourd Family. 59 



LOASACEAE Reichenb Loasa Family. 



Erect herbs, with stinging oc viscid pubescence, alternate or opposite 

 exstipulate leaves, and regular perfect solitary or cymose flowers. Calyx- 

 tube ad n ate to the ovary, limb 4-5-lobed, persistent. Petals 4-10, 

 inserted on the throat of the calyx. Stamens many, inserted with the 

 petals. Ovary. 1-ceiled, with 1-3 parietal placentae. Capsule 1-celled. 

 Represented in our flora by the genus Mentzelia L. 



M. ornata T. & <i. Stem stout 1-2 feet high, roughish-pubescent; leaves 

 sessile, or lower petioled, oval to lanceolate or oblong, sinuate-pinnatitid. 

 flowers usually solitary, terminal, yellowish white, opening- in the evening, 

 petals 10, twice as long as the calyx-lobes; capsules oblong. Sandy and 

 rocky bluffs along the Big Sioux river. Cedar Bluffs: June-September; com- 

 mon: Woodbury county. (Pammel) ( M. decapetala ( Porsh.) Urban & Gilg. ) 

 CUCURBIT ACE A E B. Juss. Gourd Family. 



Climbiucr or trailing succulent herbs with tendrils. Leaves alternate, 

 petioled, palmately lobed, palmately veined. Flowers monoecious or 

 dioecious, axillary, sometimes gamopetalous. Calyx usually campanulate, 

 5-toothed or 5-lobed. imbricated in the bud. Corolla monopetalous, 

 rotate or campanulate. Stamens 5 or 3, of which one is usually 1-celled. 

 Stigmas 2 or 3. Ovary inferior. 1-cclled, with 3 parietal placentae. Rep- 

 resented iu cultivation by the gourd, pumpkin, melon, squash, cucum- 

 ber, etc. 



KCHIHOCYSTIS. Fruit eehinate. 4- seeded. 

 Sicyos. Fruit prickly. 1- seeded. 



ECHINOCYST1S T. & G. Annuals with 3 forked tendrils, climbing high. 

 Flowers monoecious, small, greenish white: the sterile in a long compound 

 raceme, the fertile solitary or in small clusters; petals 6; anthers 3. more or 

 less united: stigmas 2; fruit fleshy, inflated, becoming dry, bursting above, 

 clothed with weak prickles. 4-seeded. 



E. lobata T & <r. Wild Cucumber* Leaves broad, thin, sharply and deeply 

 5-lobed: fruit oval, spines nearly half an inch long; seeds black. Low grounds 

 along waterways: July-September: common. [Micrampelis lobata (Mx.J 

 (rreene. ) 



SICYOS L. Annuals with 3 forked tendrils, climbing high. Flowers 

 monoecious, from the same axil, small, whitish. Petals 5, united below. 

 Anthers cohering in a mass. Style slender, with 3 stigmas. Ovary 1-celled, 

 with a single suspended ovule. Fruit ovate, dry, indehiscent, filled by the 

 seed, spiny. 



S. angulatus L. One-Deeded Bur-Cucumber. Clammy hairy: leaves 

 roundish cordate, with 5 pointed angles or lobes. Rich soil, along rivers and 

 in waste places: July-September: frequent: Scott, Muscatine, Louisa, Des 

 Moines, and Dallas counties. 



CACTACEAE Lindl. Cactus Family. 

 Ours green and fleshy plants, with flattened and joined stems armed 

 with spines and prickles, and solitary sessile flowers. Sepals, petals, 

 and stamens numerous, their bases cohering and adnate to the inferior 1- 

 celled many-ovuled ovary. Fruit a 1-celled berry. Represented in our 

 flora by the genus Ofuntia Mill. 



