CUCURBITA MOSCHATA, Duchesne. 



IVide Plates LVIII— LXI.] 



English, musk melon ; Vernacular, sitaphal, kumra, kaddu, mitha kaddu. 



,X • Natural order Cticurhitaceos, tribe Cucumerinecc. A large hispid climbino; or trailing: herb. 



Stems extensive rarely short, thick, roundish or obscurely 5-augled ; tendrils 4-5-fid. Leaves 

 rather soft, bright green, blotched with white above, paler beneath, roundish reniform, 5-7-lobed, 

 margin denticulate ; petioles 2-5 in. thick, round, sulcate, hollow, hispid, but the hairs not pungent. 

 Flowers solitary, large, yellow, monoecious. Male flower : — peduncle nearly round ; calyx tube ^ 

 in. in length, broadly campanulate, densely tomentose ; segments 5, linear, erect, about 1;^ in. ; 

 corolla 3-4 in. greenish yellow outside, orange coloured and shining inside, hairy towards the base ; 

 segments cut about ^, reflexed, acuminate, hooded at the apes and mucronate ; stamens 3, inserted 

 near the base of the calyx tube ; filaments free ; anthers connate, cells conduplicate. Female flower : — 

 peduncle 5-gonous ; calyx tube very short ; segments foliaceous ; corolla as in the male ; rudiment- 

 ary stamens at the base of the calyx tube. Fruit of various shapes, cylindrical, ovoid clavate or 

 sub-globose, or depressed at apex and base and more or less ribbed, dark green when young, 

 covered with a delicate glaucoiis bloom when ripe. Seeds | in. long by ^ in. wide, ovoid, com- 

 pressed, margined. 



• ' • ' - It is a little difiicult to distinguish this species from C. Pepo (pumpkin or vegetable marrow) 



and C. maxima (melon pumpkin) in all stages of its growth ; Duchesne himself having failed to 

 distinguish the two latter. f In this country the musk melon is usually known as C. maxima, an 

 error which took root many years ago [see Wight's figures in his Icones and Illustrations), and has 

 been adopted by many subsequent authors. | The hairiness of C. moschata is harsher than that of 

 C. maxima, but much less so than that of C. Pepo, which is decidedly pungent. The leaves of 

 C. moschata are usually marbled with whitish blotches ; not so in C. maxima, rarely in C. Pepo. In 

 C. moschata the peduncle of the female flower is angular, whereas in C. maxima it is nearly round. 

 In C. moschata the calyx tube is very short and almost obsolete. A very distinct character is af- 

 forded by the leaflike calyx segments of the female flower of C. moschata ; in C. maxima and C. 

 Pepo they are subulate. The glaucous bloom on the ripe fruit of C. moschata is another distinguish- 

 ing character. 



Origin- Tliis is One of the three species mentioned by M. Decandolle in his recent work on 



cultivated plants, the origin of which are quite unknown. 



The names vegetable marrow, pumpkin, and squash are loosely applied in India as 

 in other countries. C. Pepo, that is the true vegetable marrow, is not, as far as we are 



* References :—Naudiii in Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. 4 Vol. vi. 47 ; Hook. Fl. Erit. Ind. ii. 622 ; Atkinson Econom. Prod. 

 N.-W. P. Part v. p. 11 ; Gaz. N.-W. P. Vol. x. p. 702 ; Cogniaux in DC. Mon. Phan. iii. 546 ; DC. L'Orig. PI. Cult. 204. 

 C. Mi'lopepo, Lour. ; Roxb. Fl. Lid. iii. 719. C. maxima, W. & A. Prod. 351 ; Wight 111. t. 505 ; Ic. 507 ; Gaz. N.-W. P. 

 1. c. ; Indian Forester Vol. ix. (1883) p. 202. C. Pepo, Royle 111. 218. 



f See Naudin in Ann. Sc. Nat. I.e. 



X In Atkinson's " Notes on the Economic Products of the North-Western Provinces, Part v., p. 11, his C. maxima and 

 C. moschata are both G. moschata, Duch., and his C. Pepo on the following page is made up of Beiiincasa cerifera and Lagen- 

 aria vulgaris. The confusion with Benincasa originated with Loureiro in his Flora of (/Ochin China. 



