Thladiantha.] CUCURBITACE^. 381 



berry. Seeds few, with a thick margin, often rough on their convex 

 I faces —Spec es 2, one in Trop. Asia, Africa and Australia, the other 

 in Norfolk Island. 



"B. \ACin\OBi,l^aud.; Cogn.inBC. Mon. Phan.iii,477. Bryonia laci' 



moaa., Linn.; Boxh. Fl. hid. Hi, 723; W 8f A. Prod. 345 ; D. <^ G. Bomb. 



Fl. 101 ; F. B. I. a, 622; Watt E. D.-Vern. Bilanja (Bundeluhand). 



Stews slender, angular, glabrous or nearly so. Leaves usually deeply pal- 



mately 5-lobed, often scabrous and punctate above ; lobes 2-3 in., with a 



broad or narrow sinus; petiole often as long as the blade, sometimes 



muricate near the apex. Male-pedicels less than 1 in,, those of the 



female still shorter. Galyx-tuhe glabrous, teeth subulate. Berries 



sessile, often 2 or 3 together, | in, across, globose, green with white 



longitudinal stripes. Seeds j in., ovoid, with a thickened corrugated 



margin, the faces often muricated. 



Common within the area. Distrib. Throughout India from the Hima- 

 laya to Ceylon ; also in Java, the Philippines and in Australia. The 

 leaves are sometimes boiled and eaten as a vegetable. The plant when- 

 in fruit is collected for medicinal use, 



15. THLADIANTHA, Bunge.; Fl. Brit, Ind. ii, 680. 



Climbing perennial herbs with tuberous roots. Tendrils simple, 

 rarely 2-fid, Leaves petioled, entire or rnrelj 3-partite, deeply 

 cordate. Flotoers dioecious, yellow. Male peduncles in pairs, one 

 1-flowered without bracts and caducous, the other racemed and the 

 flowers with or without bracts. Fern, peduncle elongated, 1-flowered, 

 ebracteate. Male : Calyx-tube shortly campanulate, closed below 

 by a horizontal scale j lobes entire, linear or narrowly lanceola*^e. 

 Corolla campanulate, 5-partite ; lobes entire, oblong, refiexed. 

 Stamens 5, inserted n.^ar the mouth of calyx-tube ; anthers 1-celled, 

 narrow-oblong, straight. Pem,: Calyc and corolhx as in male, but 

 without the basal scale in the calyx. Staminodes 5, linear. Ovary 

 oblong : style deeply 3-fid., with 3 reniform stigmas ; ovules many, 

 horizontal. Fruit an oblong indehiscent many-seeded berry, gre^n 

 or red, with vertical ribs. Seeds many, small, compressed, smooth, 

 not margined. — Species 4, in S. E. Asia and Java 



T. calcarata, C. £. Ciarhein Journ.Linn. Soc.xv, 126; Cogn.in DO 

 Mon. Phan. Hi, 423. T. dubia, Hook. f. in Bot. Mag, 5469; F. B. I. ii. 

 631 "not of Bunge). , 



A large climber. Leaves 4 in. long, undivided, cordate, ovate, acute, 

 pedately veined from the base, denticulate, usually villous beneath, or 

 at length scabrous ; jx^t^ole 1-^ in. or more, villous, Male floivers many 

 approximate at the summit of a long peduncle ; bracts broadly ovate ' 

 incised. Calyx-teeth very narrow, recurved. Petals | in. long, golden.* 

 yellow, slightly hairy. Female peduncle 2-3 in., slender, villous 



