LAGEXARIA. 
291 
white clavate unequal irregular distinct on very short stalks or 
branches of the style-column. Fr. finally smooth 1-2 ft. long 
pale gr., with a hard woody but thin even rind, the upper and 
larger fertile portion hollow 6-9 in. in diam., the lower much 
smaller barren solid. Flesh in the upper part about 2 in. thick, 
pale or whitish, very bitter except when quite small and young, 
and then only watery and insipid. Seeds remarkable in shape, 
something like a hand-barrow or Skate’s egg, oblong contracted 
at the base into a triangle with the point downwards, with a 
broad continuous thickened border produced at the upper trun- 
cate end into 2 prominent obtuse or rounded knobs or auricles, 
one at each corner, and completely surrounding or separating 
at top the central lanceolate-oblong panel-like compartments of 
the testa on each side. They are 10 or 11 lines long X 4 broad 
X 1| thick, very inconspicuously or obsoletely punctato-rugulose 
and of a uniform more or less pale coffee-brown col. 
/3. pusilla (Cabaca pequena) ; fr. small 3-6 in. long unequally 
hourglass-shaped. — Differs from a. in its altogether smaller size 
and much smaller fr. and seeds, the latter being 7 or 7f lines 
long x 3 or 3£ broad X 1 or 1| thick, with the border interrupted 
at top by the meeting of the upper points of the central panel- 
like lateral compartments ; the 2 auricles or tubercles at top are 
also much less distinct and prominent than in a. 
y. clavata Ser. (e. in DC. 1. c. ; Cabala comprida) ; fr. large 
3 or 4 ft. long narrow-oblong or cylindric clavate. — Like a. ex- 
cept in fr. and seeds, the latter being as large but with the au- 
ricles at top smaller and less prominent though more pointed 
or acute, and the border completely interrupted at top by the 
lateral compartments lapping over continuously like a band 
from one side to the other. 
The Cucumber, “ Pepino” Port. {Cucumis sativus L.), abounds in 
May and June. Melons, “ Meloes” Port. ( Cucumis Melo L.), 
are fine and well -flavoured ; but the pi. do not flourish, being 
greatly infested with a white mould ( Oidium or Erysibe f. 
The large more or less netted var. (a. reticulatus Ser. in DC. 
iii. 300), and the still larger smooth Maltese (y. Maltensis 
Ser. in DC. 1. c.) are the sorts chiefly cult. The Water-melon, 
“ Melancia” Port., with red or white flesh ( Cucumis Citrullus 
Ser. in DC. iii. 301 ; Cucurbita Citrullus L.) is only rarely 
cult., but it is imported from Lisbon in considerable quantities 
in the Autumn. The peculiar deeply laciniato-siuuate foliage 
at once distinguishes the pi. 
