202 



Descriptive Flora 



clusters terminating axillary stalks 1 to 3" long. Lobes of corolla 

 frayed or frilled. Stamens 3. Stigma 3-lobed. Fruit when 

 green looks like a miniature water-melon or striped gourd about 

 1" long. April, May and June. Widespread. 



Melothria pendula L. Creeping cucumber. 



Vine bearing tendrils and small yellow flowers, and climbing 

 over bushes or trailing over the ground. Leaves simple, alter- 

 nate. Blades thin, heart-shaped or ovate in outline, with 3 to 5 

 angularly-toothed lobes. Leaf-stalks y% to long, hairy. 



Flowers bisexual, the staminate in racemes, the pistillate solitary. 

 Corolla yellow, 5-lobed, about across. Fruits speckled and 

 striped like a minature watermelon, shaped like a pecan, and 

 from y 2 to 1" long. When ripe fruits are dark purple or black- 

 ish. May to fall. Commonly on banks of streams. Easily dis- 

 tinguished from Ibervillea which has smooth and thick leaves 

 and red fruits. Banks of streams and marshy shores of lakes. 

 May to fall. 



Curcurbita foetidissima H. B. K. Wild Gourd. Calibacilla. 



Ill -smelling, coarse, pumpkin-like vine with thick heavy 

 stems and strongly coiled, branched tendrils. Leaves simple, 

 alternate. Blades very large, rough, greyish-green, from 6 to 

 10 inches long, strongly veined beneath, and having a very dis- 

 agreeable odor. Flowers large, bell-shaped, the lobes recurved at 

 their tips, orange-yellow, 2 to 3 inches long, 5-lobed and similar 

 to blossoms of the cultivated pumpkin vine or squash. Fruit a 

 smooth gourd, 2 to 3 inches across. April to fall. Trailing on 

 waste ground. 



Cyclanthera dissecta (Torr. & Gray) Arn. Bur Cucumber. 



Vine climbing by tendrils and having palmately compound 

 leaves of 3 to 7 leaflets (sometimes simple and 3 to 7 parted). 

 Flowers staminate and pistillate on separate peduncles. Stam- 

 inate flowers small, white, variusly clustered or scattered near 

 the ends of long slender peduncles. Corolla 5-parted. Stamens 



