700 
LVII. CUCURBITACEjE. 
[Mukia. 
Hub.: Humpybong, Dr. Jos. Bancroft; Keppel and Shoalwater Bays and Northumberland 
Islands, E. Brown ; Burdekin and Gilbert Rivers, F. v. Mueller ; Port Curtis and Lizard 
Island, M'Gillivray ; N.E. coast, A. Cunningham; Rockingham Bay, Dallachy, Thozet. 
2. M. celebica (of the Celebes), A. Cogn. in DC. Mon. Phan. iii. 025. 
Stems climbing, slender, very little branched, sulcate, and sparsely rough with 
tubercles. Leaves somewhat rigid, triangular-ovate, slightly trilobed, pale green, 
and roughly dotted on the upper side, densely villous beneath with grey hairs, 
margins creuato- denticulate, apex acute or shortly acuminate, 2 to bin. long, and 
almost as broad, the basal sinus very narrow. Tendrils slender, elongate, sulcate, 
slightly hairy. Pedicel densely villous-hirsute, i to 1 line long ; male dowers 
fasciculate, female solitary. Calyx-tube shortly villous-hirsute, base rounded, 2 
lines long, 1 line thick ; teeth erect, subulate, £ line long. Corolla very shortly 
villous, segments oblong, apex obtuse, 1 line long. Stamens-filaments \ line 
long ; anthers narrow-oblong, shortly ciliate, base entire, apex shortly appendi- 
culate, about 1 line long. Fruit peduncle 2J to 3 lines long, 1J line thick. 
Fruit fulvus, glabrous, smooth, about l|in. long, ljin. thick. Seeds brown, 
ovoid-oblong, shortly attenuated at the base, rounded at the apex, about 8 lines 
long, H line broad, and f to 1 line thick. — Melothria celebica, Cogn. l.c. 
Hab.: No Australian habitat recorded by F. v. M. more than Queensland and North Australia. 
13. MELOTHRIA, Linn. 
(From its similarity to Briony.) 
Calyx in the males, and upper free part of it in the females, campanulate, 
shortly 5-toothed. Corolla rotate, deeply 5-lobed, with narrow lobes. Stamens 
in the males 3 ; filaments short, free ; anthers often slightly cohering, two with 
2 cells, one with 1 cell, the cells straight and parallel, 3 small staminodia in the 
females. Ovary in the females with 3 placentas and several horizontal ovules ; 
style short, with 3 capitate, dilated or bifid stigmas. Fruit a small globular 
ovoid or fusiform berry. Seeds flat, oval or oblong, enveloped in pulp. — Slender 
climbing or prostrate herbs. Leaves triangular or palmately lobed. Tendrils 
simple. Flowers very small, yellow, the males in short racemes almost reduced 
to pedunculate umbels or sessile clusters, the females on slender axillary pedicels, 
solitary or clustered. 
The genus is dispersed over the tropical and subtropical regions of the New and the Old 
World, most abundant in Africa. 
Leaves broadly triangular or hastate. Male flowers in a pedunculate 
umbel-like raceme. Females on long filiform pedicels 1 . M. Cunninghamii. 
Leaves palmately 5 or 7-lobed. Male and female flowers minute, clustered 
in the same axils on filiform but rather short pedicels 2. M. Muelleri. 
1. IVI . Cunninghamii (after Allan Cunningham), P. c. M. (as Zehneria) ; 
Benth. FI. Austr. iii. 320. Stems very slender, often filiform. Leaves broadly 
triangular or hastate, irregularly but not deeply toothed, or rarely obscurely 3 or 
5-lobed, thin and somewhat scabrous, the larger ones nearly 3in. long, but 
mostly smaller. Tendrils simple, filiform. Male peduncles slender, bearing at 
the end a short corymbose raceme almost reduced to an umbel of about 0 
small yellow flowers. Female flowers usually solitary in the axils, on filiform 
pedicels of 1 to 2in., with rarely a male flower in the same axil. Calyx about 
1 line diameter. Corolla about 2 lines diameter. Ovary or calyx-tube of the 
females attenuate into a slender neck. Stigmas capitate. Berry globular, 3 to 4 
lines diameter. — Zehneria Cunninghamii, F. v. M. in Hook. Ivew Journ. viii. 51. 
Hab.: Brisbane River, Moreton Bay, F. r. Mueller: Breakfast Creek, Bowman; Rockhampton, 
Dallachy . 
This species is nearly allied to the African M. triangularis, Benth. The northern specimens 
in Herb. R. Brown have the leaves broadly cordate, the flowers rather longer and the fruits 
rather larger, almost ovoid, but they appear to belong to the same species. Benth. 
