266 CUCUEBITACE^. [LtirFA 



Flower s\-AXgQ, white, solitary, monoecious or dioecious, the males long — 

 the females short-peduucled, Male : Calyx-tube funnel-shaped, sub- 

 cam panulate ; teeth 5, narrow. Petals 5, free, obovate. Stamens 3 ; 

 anthers connate, included, one 1-celled, two 2-celled, cells condupli- 

 cate; rudiment of ovary 0. Female: Calyx and corolla 2i.%\tl the 

 male. Ovary oblong ; style short, with 3 bifid stigmatic lobes ; ovules 

 many, horizontal ; placentas 3, vertical. Fruit large, ultimately 

 thick membranous or almost woody, indehiscent, polymorphous, usually 

 broader upwards. Seeds very many, horizontal, compressed, with a 

 marginal groove, smooth. — A single species. 



L. vulgaris, 8er.; W. <^ A, Prod. 341 ; Boyle 111.218; F. B. I. ii, 61S ; 



Cogn. in DC. Man. Phan. in, 417 ; DO. V Grig. PI. Cult. 195 ; Field ^ 

 Gard. Crojps part ii, 48, t. xlviii ; Watt E. D. Cucurbita Lagenaria, Linn.; 

 Boxb. Fl. Ind. Hi, 718.— Vem. Kaddu, alhaddu, laulci, gol kaddu, tumri 

 (small wild form). Bottle gourd. 



A softly pubescent climbing or trailing herb, with stout 5-angled stems. 

 Leaves often 6 in. in diam,, 5-angular or 5-lobed, hairy on both surfaces. 

 Petals 1-2 in long, crumpled, hairy on both sides. Ovary softly pubes- 

 cent. Fruit usually bottle- or dumbbell-shaped. Seeds -|-| lin., white. 



This gourd is cultivated within the area during the rainy season, and 

 throughout India, as well as in America, Australia and China. Accord- 

 ing to DeCandoUe it is indigenous in India, the Moluccas and in Abys- 

 sinia. The fruit, when young, is boiled and used as vegetable marrow, 

 or it is sliced and cooked in curries, or cut 'into strips and boiled to 

 resemble French beans. The dried shell of the bottle-shaped fruit is 

 much used for holding water, and that of the wild kind (tumri) is made 

 into the stringed instrument known as the sitar. The leaves, the pulp 

 of the fruit and the seeds are medicinal. 



4. LUFFA, Cav. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. ii, 614. 



Climbers, large or small, pubescent or nearly glabrous ; tendrils 

 2-5-fid. Leaves cordate, usualij 5-angular or 5-lobed ; petiole with 

 out glands at its apex. Flowers yellow or white, monoecious, male* 

 and females often from the same axil ; females solitary or panicled, 

 males on long or short racemes or clustered. Male : Calyx-tube top- 

 shaped ; lobes 5, triangular or lanceolate. Fetals 5, obovate. Stamens 

 3, rarely h, filaments 3, free or connate ; anthers exserted, f ree, one 1 

 celled, the others 2-celled, cells sigmoid, often on the margin of the 

 broad connective. Female : Calyx-tuhe shortly produced above tha| 

 ovary ; lobes and corolla as in the male. Ovary oblong ; style oylindric 

 stigma 3-lobed ; ovules very many, horizontal. Fruit large or small 

 oblong (not spherical), smooth or angular or spinous, ultimately fib 

 rous, not succulent, 3-celled, usually circumsciss near the top. Seed> 

 many, oblong, compressed. — Species about 7, in thie warmer regiou 



