CucuMis.] CVCTJBBITACBM. 371 



.2-fid. Few. peduncle 1-2 in. ; bracts small, near the middle. Fruit 4-5 

 in., o-vate, pointed, bright-red, fleshy, not ribbed, aculeate with conical 

 points. Seeds many, compressed, black, corrugate on margin, sculptured 

 on the faces. 

 Bundelkhand (Mrs. Bell). Distrib. Bengal, Southern India, Burma; 

 lalso in Malaya, China and in the Philippines. 



7. CUCUMIS, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. ii, 619. 



Olimbing herbs, hispid or scabrous ; tendrils simple. Leaves 

 petioled, palinately 3-7-lobed or 5-angled or entire, dentate or 

 serrate, Floioers yellow, monoecious, solitary or clusteied in the 

 axils, all shortly peduncled. Male : Calyx4uhe top-sbaped or 

 catnnanulate, lobes 5. Stamens 3 ; anthers free, one l-celled, two 

 li-celled, cells conduplicate much flexuose, connective produced in a 

 crest. Eemale : Calyx and corolla as in the male. Ovary ovoid ; 

 style short, with 3 obtuse stigtnas ; ovules very many, liorizontal ; 

 placentas 3. Fruit Heshy, indehiscent, large or small, spherical or 

 elongate^ smooth or tuberculate. Seeds vary many, oblong, com- 

 pressed, mostly smooth. — Species 26, of which about half are 

 African, a few in Trop. Asia Australia, and America, and several 

 widely cultivated of doubtful origin. 

 Fruit glabrous or pubescent. 



Annual, leaves S-atigled or-lobed, 



male flowers in clasfcers . 1. C. Mela. 



Perennial, leaves deeply lobed, 

 male flowers usually solitary . 2, C. trigonus. 



Fruit spinous or tubercled. 

 Perennial, fruit green striped 

 with white, covered with soft 

 spines . ~ . . . 3. C. projphetarum. 



Annual, fruit sparingly tubercled 4. C. sativus. 



1 C Melo, Linn.; Roxh. Fl. Ind. Hi, 720; W. <^ A. Prod. 341 ; F. B. I. 

 a 620; Cogn.in DC. Man. Phan. Hi, 4S2 ; DC. L'Orig. PI. Cult. 205 ; 

 Field Sf Gard. Crops part ii, 51, t. 50; Watt E.D.—Yevn. Kharhuza 

 (The Melon). 

 An annual. Stems creeping, angular, scabrous. Leaves about 3 in. in 



diam o'rbicular-reniform in outline, 5-angled or-lobed, scabrous on 



both surfaces and also often with soft hairs ; lobes not deep nor acute ; 



vetiole 2 in. Petals % in. Fern, peduncle sometimes 2 m. Frmt 



spherical ovoid elongate or contorted, glabrous or somewhat hairy, 



not spinous nor tuberculate. 

 Extensively cultivated within the area and throughout India for the sake of 



its fruit, and chiefly on the sandy beds or margins of rivers. According- 



n2 



