LUFFA ACUTANGULA, RoxK' 



[Fide Plate LXIL] 



Description. 



Origin. 

 Uses. 



Ciiltivation. 



English, none ; Veenaculab kali taroi, kali tori, satpatiya (Bundelkhand). 



Natural order Cucurhitacece, tribe CucumerineoB. Stems extensively trailing, slender, little 

 branched, clothed with adpressed pubescence, 5-angled, angles winged ; tendrils 3-6-fid. Petioles 

 about 2 in., round or obscurely angled, with a deep furrow on the upper side. Leaves 3-4 in. 

 across, palmately 5-7-angled, pale green, rough on both sides. Flowers rather large, pale yellow, 

 monoecious ; male and female from the same axil. Male ilowers in erect axillary racemes (coryitt- 

 bose at first as in Cruciferce, pedicels jointed near the middle, and with a thick spoon-shaped 

 glandular bract a little below the joint ; calyx tube turbinate, teeth lanceolate, acute, about equal 

 to the tube, tuberculate at the base ; corolla pubescent outside especially on the promiaent veins ; 

 segments 5, obovate or obcordate, mucronate. Stamens 3, one 1-celled two 2-celIed, filaments hairy 

 below. Female flowers larger than those of the male, solitary, peduncles longer than the petioles, 

 not jointed, calyx and corolla as in the male, but the latter sooner falling ; style with three spreading 

 stigmas ; fruit about 1 ft. long, and 2-3 in. in width, smooth, clavate, obtuse, furnished with 10 

 sharp longitudinal ridges, and tipped with the persistent calyx segments ;t seeds without a wing 

 obovate, bilobed at the base, \ in. long and \ in. broad, corrugated, black or mottled with grey. 



Indigenous in India and in the Indian Archipelago. J 



The fruit of this species is much cultivated during the rainy season, and is highly- 

 valued as a vegetable. By the Natives it is used chiefly in curries ; the half -grown 

 fruits when boiled and dressed with butter, pepper and salt are, says Eoxburgh, "little 

 inferior to green peas." 



Mr. Go 11 an says § — 



" Two sowii)gs will keep up a supply from July until October. The first sowing should be made in April, 

 " and the second in the end of May, or beginning of June. The seeds should be sown in lines at the same 

 " distance apart as cucumbers." 



No reliable information can be given as to its distribution and the area it occu- 

 pies in these Provinces. 



JExplanation of Plate LXII. 



1 & 3. Male flowers. | 4. Fruit. 



2. Female flower. | 5. Transverse section of ditto. 



From a drawing of a living specimen cultivated at Sabaranpur. 



• References :— Roxb Hort Beng. 70 ; Fl. Ind. iii. 713 ; W. & A. Prod. 343 ; Fl. Brit. Ind. ii. 615 ; (Atkinson 

 Econom. Prod. N.-W. P., Part v. p. 6 ; Gaz. N.-W. P., Vol. x. 700 ; Naud. in Ann. Sc. Nat. Rer. 4 Vol. 12 p 122; 

 Cogniaux in DC. Mon. Phan. iii. 459; DC. L'Orig. PI. Cult. 215; Indian Forester Vol. ix. (1883) p. 201. Cucumit 

 Acuianguhis, Linn. 



t Roxburgh observes :— " There is the rudiment of a lid at the apex of the fruit, but it never separates spontaneous!/. ' 

 i DC. L'Orig. PI. Cult 216. 

 § Ind. For. I.e. 



