LVII. CUCURBITACEiE. 
691 
meeting in the axis, dividing into as many or twice as many cells, or with 1 
placenta and remaining 1-celled. Style 1, entire or 3-lobed, or rarely 8 almost 
distinct styles ; stigmas 3 (rarely 4 or 5), entire or lobed. Ovules 1 or more to 
each placenta. Fruit succulent or coriaceous, often with a hard rind, indehiscent 
or bursting irregularly or rarely opening in 3 valves. Seeds usually flat, often 
obovate or oblong, without albumen; testa coriaceous or bony. Embryo straight; 
cotyledons large, usually notched at the base, with a short radicle. — Herbs (except 
in a few species not Australian) weak, prostrate or climbing by means of tendrils 
arising from the sides of the stems near the petioles, generally more or less 
scabrous or hispid. Leaves alternate, without stipules, usually palmately veined 
and angular, lobed or divided. Flowers unisexual in all the Australian genera, 
on axillary peduncles, the males usually in racemes or clusters, or sometimes 
solitary, the females generally solitary. 
A considerable Order, dispersed over all but the colder regions of the globe, but most 
abundant in dry hot countries, especially in Africa. 
Tribe I. Cucumerinece. — Ovules horizontal (or pendulous). Female flowers usually 
solitary , never paniculate. Leaves not divided into distinct leaflets. 
Anther-cells very flexuose or conduplicate. 
Calyx-tube elongated. Petals fringed with long cilia 1. Trichosanthe. 
Calyx-tube broadly campanulate or turbinate. Petals not fringed. 
Tendrils branched. 
Male flowers large, solitary. Fruit large with a hard rind, dry but not 
fibrous 2. Lagenaria. 
Male flowers in pedunculate racemes. Fruit dry, fibrous 3. Luffa. 
Male and female flowers solitary. Fruit oblong. Seeds smooth, with 
thickened margins. Petioles eglandulous 4. Benincasa. 
Tendrils simple. 
Corolla with incurved scales at the insertion of the stamens. Anthers 
without appendage. Fruit usually pulpy, somewhat dehiscent . . 5. *Momordica. 
Male flowers clustered or solitary. Anthers tipped with an appendage 
to the connective. Fruit pulpy or fleshy 6. Cucumis. 
Flowers all solitary, connective not produced at the apex. Tendrils 2 to 3-fid 7. *Citrullus. 
Male flowers racemose. Style short, dilated into three 2-forked recurved- 
subulate stigmatose branches. No tendrils 8. *Ecballium. 
Corolla campanulate, lobed to above or about the middle, rarely below it. 
Tendrils usually divided. Flowers solitary 9. *Cucurbita. 
Anther-cells flexuous. Style inserted in an annular disk 10. Bryonia. 
Male flowers corymbose or subumbel late or racemed, connective not pro- 
duced. Fruit shortly peduncled 11. Zehneria. 
Calyx-tube turbinate. Anther-cells straight, parallel ; connective of anther 
minutely produced at apex. Female flowers sessile, without staminodia . 12. Mukia. 
Calyx-tube broadly campanulate. Anthers without appendages. Female 
flowers pedunculate, bearing staminodia 13 . Melothria. 
Tribe II. Sicyoideae. — Stamens 3 to 5 ; filaments usually connate. Ovary 1-celled, with 1 
pendulous ovule. 
Tendrils branched. Flowers small. Fruit small, prickly in the Australian 
species 14. Sicyos. 
Tribe III. Zanoniese. — Flowers small, females paniculate or in racemes. Stamens 5 ; 
filaments free. Ovary hearing 3 placentas. Fruit 1-celled, cylindrical or 3-gonous. Seeds winged. 
Calyx 5-lobed. Stamens 5, free. Seeds winged at the top end 15. Alsomitra. 
1. TRICHOSANTHES, Linn. 
(The corolla fringed with hairs.) 
Calyx in the males and free part of it in the females oblong or cylindrical, 
dilated upwards, 5-lobed. Corolla rotate, deeply divided into 5 oblong or lanceo- 
late lobes, bordered by long hair-like lobes or cilia. Stamens in the males 3, 
filaments very short, free ; anthers 2 with 2 cells, 1 with 1 cell, the cells condu- 
plicate. Ovary in the females oblong or globular, with 3 placentas ; style 
slender, with 3 linear stigmas, the gynoecium reduced in the males to 3 filiform 
