1840.] Remarlis on the fruit of the Natural Order CucurbUace(S. 



47 



ally Bryonia, as he has done ; but wlieii I came to consider his sectional 

 characters, and that the form and position of the stamens and anthers 

 and stigma and fruit are, really, the only characters hitherto employed for 

 genera by other botanists ; and that all Schrader has done, is to keep 

 only those species in their old genera that agree with the character and 

 turning out, and making new genera of those that do not, then I felt 

 inclined to go great lengths towards adopting his views. I intend here 

 to give you a Conspectus, or abridged generic characters, which I have 

 drawn up, not only for the Indian, but also for the whole world, which 

 I shall not object to your publishing as " abridged characters of the 

 genera of the tribe Cucm^hitece of Schrader.' 



" At the conclusion of the conspectus he continues, — ' These seem to 

 be all the genera known that truly belong to Cucurhitece, they have all 

 unisexual flowers. Gronovia has them bisexual, but is otherwise very 

 closely allied. Allasia cannot be of this order, unless we suppose the 

 description quite erroneous ; and if so, Loureiro may have had before 

 him, in part at least, the Telfairia pedata ; Myrianthiis cannot belong to 

 CucurbctacecB. 



" ' Thladiunthus Bimge is imperfectly described as to the stamens, but 

 may perhaps form a 7 th tribe. 



" ' I have laboured under great difficulty in making out these characters, 

 partly because the published descriptions were very imperfect, partly 

 because 1 had not several of the genera, and partly, from the extreme 

 difficulty of examining the anthers after being dried and pressed. I 

 would therefore suggest to you and other Indian botanists, to re-examine 

 all the Indian ones on living plants, and have drawings made, paying par- 

 ticular attention to the representation of the anthers. 



" ' At first you may, as I did, confuse section 7 with section 9, but if 

 you will compare the flower of Citridlies, Moniordica or Lagenarea with 

 Ciicurhita or Coccirda^ you will readily see the difference. In section 7, 

 the connectivum is lobed, and the anther cells are placed along the 

 edge of the lobes — in sections 8 and 9 the connectivum is not itself lobed, 

 but the anther cell is bent,' (it winds upwards and downwards along 

 the back of the connectivum). 



" Warned by the concluding paragraph of the difficulty attending the 

 description of these plants from dried specimens, I took occasion, as op- 

 portunity offered, to compare some of the sectional characters with 

 recent specimens, and feel disposed to think the sections too numerous, 

 and not sufficiently distinguished. I have not yet succeeded in com- 

 paring the whole, but would suggest the following alterations, which 1 

 think would improve the arrangement. 



