282 
33. CUCURBITACEiE. 
(La Melonnee) Duch. in Lam. Enc. Metli. ii. 152. — Herb. ann. 
Mad., PS., cult. reg. 1, 2, ccc. Gardens and fields chiefly below 
1000 ft. everywhere. FI. at most seasons ; ff. Sept., Oct. — This, 
the ordinary and most esteemed kind of Pumpkin in Mad., 
is at once distinguished by its very dark lurid speckled foliage 
and thickly hirsute st. and petioles. St. prostrate spreading 
from 20 to 40 or 50 ft. long, ^-J- in. thick, sparingly branched 
angular or ribbed, very dark lurid gr., stout tough and cord-like, 
hardened and woody downwards, hispid but not at all prickly- 
strigose, and like 1. and petioles thickly hoary- villous or hirsute 
upwards. L. about 12 in. in diarn., the disk spreading horizon- 
tally at right angles with the footstalk, hispid shining. Male : 
fl. scarcely more than 3 in. in diani., somewhat smaller than in 
C. Pepo 1)C. ( A . de Machado ), orange-y. ; cal. -cup or torus flat 
and shallow and like the sep. thickly villous-hoary or pubescent, 
the hairs hiding the nervation of the former ; sep. always erect 
and adpressed to the cor. -tube or cup, flat thin or leafy and 
herbaceous to the tip, dark gr. linear acute. Cor.-cup with only 
20 principal ribs viz. 3 to each segment and a single simple 
intermediate one from each sep., — instead of 25 viz. 3 to each 
segment and a double or 2-forked intermediate one, as in the 
female fl. of the present and as in both male and female fl. of 
the two following sp., — the whole inside clothed with short 
subglandular y. hairs, and the ribs outside hoary- villous. Stain. 
3, their fil. thick smooth short distinct combined into a stalk 
not more and sometimes less than half the length of the oblong 
truncate anther-column, which is 8-10 lines long and 2-3 thick. 
Fem. fl. large 4-5 in. in diam. orange-}’, perfectly sessile on the 
oval-globose quite even (not ribbed or angular) finely downy 
3-celled ov., which is pale gr. mottled with 10 paler interrupted 
streaks. Cal.-cup very flat and shallow subpentangular, its 
segments or sep. like the cup itself dark gr. subfoliaceous not 
withering at the tips, spreading horizontally, very narrow, linear- 
acuminate or linear-subulate and very remote, £ in. long, with 
a pair of nerves forking from the base of each, one to each of 
the pet. or segm. of cor., which are 4 in. long from the base of 
the sep., with the midrib excurrent at the tip. Cor.-cup with 
25 principal ribs, having an additional nerve on each side the 
3 main nos of the segments forking from the base of the sen. ; 
the inside clothed, especially downwards, with y. glandular 
pubescence ; the throat nearly or quite closed with a smooth 
shining paley. waxlike fleshy tumid lrregularlyG-lobed or divided 
crown, which is surrounded and tightly embraced by an outer 
indexed faintly 3-toothed or sinuate smooth membranous ring 
or shallow cup, and composed of five large thick prominent 
conspicuous waved or plaited wart-like lumps or tubercles 
(abortive anthers) distinct but not remote from the 3-partite 
style-column. Styles 3 smooth combined downwards. Stigmas 
