1840.] Remarks on the fruit of the Natural Order Cucurhitaceas, 45 



V. — Bemarlis on the Fruit of the Natural Order Cucurbitacece. — Bij 

 Robert Wight, m. d., r. s. &c. 



The order Cucurhitacem^ is perhaps one of the most curious and 

 inexplicable in the system of plants, and though at different times much 

 studied by several eminent botanists, is still imperfectly understood ; at 

 least if we may judge from the fact, that no two writers on the dis- 

 tribution of plants according to their natural affinities seem to agree 

 as to what families are its nearest allies. It is not now my intention to 

 examine this question, for which, indeed, I have not at present leisure, 

 even supposing I possessed the requisite materials, which I do not, but 

 merely to offer a few observations on the general character of the family 

 and fruit, introductory to a conspectus of the genera of the order, with 

 which Dr. Arnott kindly favoured me, and at the same time permitted 

 me t<> pla<'e on the pages of the Society's Journal, should I deem that 

 desirable. Deeming the conspectus really a most desirable addition to 

 our Indian botanical literature, I have much pleasure in submitting 

 it for that purpose, in the hope that the Society may be of the same 

 opinion. 



The Cucurhitacece are a tribe of plants so very unlike the rest of the 

 vegetable kingdom, that I think I may safely say no one having the 

 slightest knowledge of family likeness among plants, could ever mistake 

 so far as to refer one of tb^ra to any other family. Though thus isolat- 

 ed from all around, and without a single near relation with whom they 

 can be justly compared or confounded, they yet stretch their more re- 

 mote affinities on all sides ; hence the difficulties which systematic wri- 

 ters find in decisively referring them to any one place, more than another, 

 in the series of orders. Nearly all however, now agree in placing 

 them among orders having parietal placentae, that is, among plants the 

 ovary of which is one-celled. 



To any one who will take the trouble to look attentively at a 

 slice of a young cucumber this must appear strange, but is yet not the 

 less true. In one of the latest and the best introductions to botany in 

 the English language. Dr. Lindley's, a peponida, the pecuhar fruit 

 of the order, is thus defined :— " One-celled, many- seeded, inferior, 

 indehiscent, fleshy ; the seeds attached to parietal pulpy placentrB. This 

 fruit has its cavity frequently filled at maturity with pulp, in which 

 the seeds are imbedded ; their point of attachment is, however, never 

 lost. The cavity is also occasionally divided by projections of the pla- 

 centcC into spurious cells, which has given rise to the belief that in 

 Pepo Macrocarpus there is a central cell, which is not only untrue but 

 impossible." 



