CUCUMIS COLOCYKTHIS. 
187 
of this tincture, one or two tea-spoonfuls may be taken (diluted 
with a little water) three or four times a day. The extract, which 
is also much used, we have given in doses of from ten to twenty 
grains. 
Off. The Root. 
CUCUMIS COLOCYNTHIS. 
Bitter Cucumber.* 
Class Moth cEGi A. — Order Syngenesia. 
Nat. Ord. CucuRBiTACEiE. 
Gen. Char. Male. Ca/j/x five-toothed. OoroZ/a five- parted. 
Filaments three. 
Female. Calyx five-toothed. Corolla five- 
parted. Pistil three-cleft. Seeds of the Gourd sharp at 
the edge. 
Spec. Char. Leaves multified. Fruit globose, smooth. 
This species of Cucumis is the KoAuy^uvfl;? of Dioscorides ; it is 
supposed to be a native of Asia and Africa. Burchell, in his travels 
in Southern Africa,t says, that he saw a great many of the colocynth 
melons scattered on the ground near the Breed river, in the district 
of Roodezand ; and Burckhardt saw them lying on the ground in 
great profusion in the desert of Nubia, called Wadyom-gat.l We 
are told by Gerarde, that it is a common plant on the shores of the 
Mediterranean sea; and Dr. AinsHe says, the plant which produces 
the coloquiutida may be found in many parts of Lower India, parti- 
cularly in sandy situations in the neighbourhood of the sea.§ It 
* Fig. a, and b. two views of an anther, c. A seed, 
t Page 126. 
:j; Burckhardt's Travels through Nubia, p. 184. 
§ Ainslie's Mat. Ind, vol. i. p. 84. 
