GOURD FAMILY 1 89 



some points on the south-west coast. — Fl. July — September. 

 Biennial. 



4. CiRci:A (Enchanter's Nightshade). — Slender, erect herbs 

 with creeping rhizomes ; leaves opposite, stalked, toothed ; 

 flowers in racemes, small, white, 2-merous ; sepals reflexed, 

 deciduous ; style slender ; stigma 2-lobed ; ovules i or 2 ; fruit 

 indehiscent, covered with hooked bristles. (Name from Circe, 

 the enchantress who bewitched Ulysses and his companions.) 



1. C. lutetidna (Common Enchanter's Nightshade). — A 

 slender herbaceous plant, pubescent with glandular hairs, 1—2 

 feet high, with round-stalked, ovate, spreading, dull leaves, and 

 loose terminal and lateral racemes of minute white flowers, with 

 pink stamens, succeeded by 2-lobed bristly fruits. — Damp shady 

 places ; common, often a troublesome weed in damp gardens. — 

 Fl. June — August. Perennial. 



2. C. alpina (Alpine Enchanter's Nightshade). — Closely re- 

 sembling the last, but smaller, not exceeding 8 in. in height, 

 less hairy, less branched ; leaves cordate, shining, more deeply- 

 toothed, and with flat stalks. They are so delicate as to be 

 nearly transparent when dried. The fruit is less bristly and 1- 

 seeded. — Mountainous woods in the north. — Fl. July, August. 

 Perennial. 



Ord. XXXIII. CucurbitacejE. — The Gourd Family 



A large and important Order, chiefly tropical, but having only 

 one British representative. They are herbaceous plants with juicy 

 stems, climbing by means of tendrils ; scattered, exstipulate leaves 

 which are usually lobed and rough ; pentamerousyfozews which 

 are often large, yellow, red, or white, and imperfect ; and fruit 

 either a berry or a gourd (pepo), horny externally when ripe. 

 The calyx is superior and 5 -toothed ; the corolla so united to the 

 calyx-tube as to be sometimes scarcely distinguishable ; the 5, 

 more or less united, stamens, with twisted anthers, in distinct 

 flowers from the 1 -chambered ovary of 3 united carpels, either on 

 the same plant (monoecious) or on different plants (dioecious). 

 The style is short, the stigmas are thick, lobed and velvety, and 

 the seeds flat. A great number of species are cultivated in Europe 

 either for use or ornament. Many of them are bitter and violent 

 purgatives, of which the common medicinal Colocynth (Citnillus 

 Colocynthis) is an example. This species bears an oval fruit of a 

 very bitter taste, and grows in sandy and desert places. It is 

 almost certainly the wild cucumber mentioned in 2 Kings iv. 39, 

 40, as it still grows in profusion at Gilgal, and as its leaves, ten- 



