CITRULLUS COLOCYNTHIS, Sclirad: 



iVide Plate LVII.] 



English, colocynth; Vernacular, indrayan, muklial; Sanscrit, indra-varuni, vishala.f 



Natural order CucurhitacecB, tribe Cucumerinece. A scabrous trailing perennial herb. Stems 

 slender, angular, branched ; tendrils bifid, slender. Leaves as in C. vulgaris, but smaller, stifFer and 

 more scabrous, terminal segment more deeply cut ; petiole about 1 in. Flowers rather large, soli- 

 taiy, monoecious. Male flowers : — calyx tube campanulate, hairy, lobes subulate recurved ; corolla 

 pale greenish yellow, conspicuously veined, divisions extending more than half way down, ovate, 

 acute, mucronate. Female flowers : — calyx tube fused with the ovary, contracted above, lobes and the 

 corolla as in the male ; staminodes 3 ; ovary ovoid hairy. Fruit nearly globular 2-?>\ in. in dia- 

 meter, smooth or faintly grooved, dark green mottled with yellowish blotches arranged in undulating 

 bands ; epicarp thin, coriaceous, yellow when dry ; pulp intensely bitter. Seeds chestnut coloured, 

 about |- in, long, smooth, obovate, compressed, not margined. 



Colocyntli can hardly be considered either as a field or a garden crop in these Pro- 

 vinces, for the fruits are collected from plants which are found wild in abundance on 

 certain desert tracts of N.-W. India, and nowhere in India does it appear to be systema- 

 tically cultivated. It is, however, an important medicinal plant, which is capable of 

 being cultivated in the drier parts of these Provinces. 



The part used as a medicine is the spongy seed-bearing portion of the fruit ; it is 

 intensely bitter, and acts as a strong purgative. 



Explanation of Tlate LVI I. 



4. Fruit, 



5. Ditto, transverse section 



1. Portion of flowering branch, | 



2. Male flower, / all nat. size. 



3. Female flower, ' 



From a drawing of a living specimen cultivated in Saharanpur Garden 



, } 



all nat. size. 



• References :— Wight Ic. t. 498 ; Boiss. n. Orient, ii. 769 ; Bentley and Trim. Med. PI. lU ; Hook. Fl. Brit. Ind, 

 ii. 620; Naudin in Ann. Sc. Nat Ser. 4 Vol. 12 p. 99 ; Cogniaux in DC. Mon. Phan. iii. 510; Atkinson Econora. Prod. 

 ^I.-W. P. Part V. p. 10 ; Gaz. N.-W. P. Vol. x. 701. Cucumis Colocynthis, Linn., W. & A. Prod. 342. 



f Piddington Index 26. 



1 



