Botanij of Hie Cucurbits 



305 



C. maxima. The grower should familiarize himself with 

 the interesting differences in foliage and flowers. 



The Cucuebitous Pla^^ts 



For the purposes of this discussion, we may consider only 

 three genera of the Cuciirbitaeeie, comprising annual and per- 

 ennial herbs of warm countries, those of the vegetable-garden 

 being tender annuals: Cucumis with about 25 species, mostly 

 African and Asian; Citrullus, 4 species in Africa; Cucurbita, 

 about 10 species, perhaps American but the origin of the cul- 

 tivated kinds unknown. All these garden species are monceci- 

 ous, — the stamens and pistils being in separate flowers on the 

 same plant; the staminate (malej flowers are more numerous 

 than the pistillate, and soon perish. All are tendril-bearing, 

 thereby grasping weeds and other supports and climbing over 

 bushes and fences when allowed to do so ; plants hirsute, 

 pubescent or prickly-hairy; fruit a pepo (the word " pepo " 

 is Latin for a pumpkin or related fruit) which is a normally 

 3-celled and mostly indehiscent more or less fleshy many- 

 seeded pericarp, with the flower-parts at the apex. 



Cucumis. Two species are in common cultivation; and the 

 burr gherkin, C. Anguria, is sometimes grown for the making 

 of pickles from its tuberculate fruit and also for ornament. 

 They are all slender-running plants with simple (unbranched) 

 tendrils. The cucumber has been cultivated from prehistoric 

 times, but the melon appears to be of later domestication. 



C. sativus. Linn. Sp. PI. 1012. Cucumber. Trailing or climb- 

 ing rough-hairy her! s with alternate long-petioled triangular- 

 ovate angled or somewhat 3-lobed irregularly dentate leaves, 

 the middle lobe usually pointed : flowers axillary, yellow, with 

 hairy calyx ; staminate 1* to several in the axil, 1 to lY-2 in. 

 across, very short-pedicelled. the calyx-tube campanulate and 

 exceeding the 5 subulate siireading lol;es, the corolla 3 or 4 

 times longer than calyx-lobes, the corolla-lobes acute and usu- 

 ally conduplicate, stamens 3 inserted on the corolla-tube and 

 the bearded anthers produced into an erect -appendage ; pis- 



