306 



Tlie Cucurhits 



tillate flower mostly solitary, nearly or quite sessile, the long 

 3-celled ovary much constricted at its summit, the three 2-lobed 

 stigmas very large, the staminodia usually not evident: fruit 

 mostly oblong, sometimes nearly globular, prickly or tubercu- 

 late: seeds small (about in. long nnd nearly half as wide), 

 brownish-white, elliptic, flat, and apiculate or sharp-pointed 

 at apex, smooth, 20 to 35 mg. in weight, keeping S to 10 years 

 or even longer. Yar. anglicus, Bailey, Cyclo. Amer. Hort., 

 408. 1900. English or Forcing Cucumber. Vine very strong 

 and vigorous : leaves large and broad, short in proportion to 

 breadth : flowers very large ; ovaries and fruits very long and 

 slender (fruit sometimes 3 ft. long), little furrowed, spine- 

 less or nearly so, ripening green or nearly so rather than 

 yellow, the seeds few. 



C. Melo, Linn. Sp. PL 1011. Melon. Muskmelon. Trail- 

 ing or climbing soft-pubescent or hairy herbs, with long-petioled 

 reniform or round-ovate deeply cordate hairy angled but com- 

 monly not lobed apiculate-dentate leaves : flowers yellow, with 

 hairy calyx, on short peduncles ; staminate 1 or more in the 

 axil, about 1 in. across, the 5 narrow calyx-lobes about as long 

 as the tube, the 5 oblong nearly obtuse corolla-lobes 3 times 

 as long as calyx-lobes, stamens 3 inserted on the corolla-tube 

 and the anthers produced above into an erect appendage; 

 pistillate flower single, with inferior 3-celled globular or oblong 

 ovary, the 3 stigmas surrounded by 3 conspicuous staminodia 

 (sterile anthers), which, however, are often polliniferous, mak- 

 ing the flower perfect : fruit various, globular or cylindrical, 

 more or less furrowed, pubescent but usually becoming glab- 

 rous : seeds elliptic or oblong, brownish-white, plump, about 

 1/4 in. long and in. broad, not apiculate. smooth, weighing 

 25 to 35 mg. and holding vitality 5 to 10 years. — Probably cen- 

 tral Asian. (The word " Melo " is Latin for a form of melon.) 

 Yar. reticulatus, Naudin, Ann. des Sci. Nat. Bot. Ser. 4, ii, 50. 

 1S59. Reticulated or Netted Melons. Small fruits with the 

 surface net-ribbed, comprising the nutmeg melons. Yar. can- 

 talupensis, Naudin. 1. 2. 47. Cantaloupe Melons. (Fig. 174.) 

 Fruits with hard rinds, often furrowed, warty, scaly or rough. 



