Melothria.] 
LVII. CUCURBIT ACE.®. 
701 
2. 1VI. lYEaelleri (after Baron von Mueller), Benth. FI. Austr. iii. 320. 
Small and rather slender, very scabrous but not hispid. Leaves on long petioles, 
deeply cordate, nearly orbicular, 1 to 2in. diameter, shortly and palmately 5 to 
7-lobed, the lobes mostly obtuse, coarsely toothed or lobed. Tendrils small, 
filiform, simple. Flowers minute, on filiform pedicels of 2 to 3 lines, the males 
and females clustered in the same axils. Calyx not 1 line diameter, with minute 
teeth. Corolla about 2 lines diameter, divided to the calyx into obtuse lobes. 
Ovary or calyx-tube in the females ovoid, contracted into a short neck, the corolla 
smaller than in the males. Staminodia 3, very small. Stigmas remform or 
shortly 2-lobed. Berry globular, about Jin. diameter. — Cucurbita micrantha, 
F. v. M. in Trans. Phil. Soc. Viet. i. 17 ; Cucumis ? Muelleri, Naud. in Ann. Sc. 
Nat. Ser. 4, xi. 84 ; Zehneria micrantha, F. v. M. Fragm. i. 182, and PI. Viet, 
t. 18 ; Mukia micrantha, F. v. M. Fragm. ii. 180 ; iii. 107. 
Hab.: Georgina River. 
14. SICYOS, Linn. 
(The Greek name of Cucumber.) 
Calyx in the males and free part of it above the narrow tube in the females 
eampanulate, with 5 small subulate teeth. Corolla rotate, divided to the calyx into 
5 ovate lobes. Stamens in the males united in a column clavate at the top and 
more or less lobed, with 3 to 5 linear curved and fiexuose anther-cells. Ovary 
in the females 1 -celled with one pendulous ovule. Fruit small, dry, ovoid or 
oblong, acute or beaked, usually covered with prickles.— Prostrate or climbing 
herbs. Leaves angular, or 3 or 5-lobed. Tendrils 3-branched. Flowers small, 
the males in racemes sometimes reduced to corymbs or clusters ; the females 
pedicellate in the axils or sometimes in the same raceme with the males. 
The genus is spread over the warmer regions of the New and the Old World. The only 
Australian species is a common American one. 
1. S. angulata (3-angular-leavea), Linn.; DC. Prod. iii. 309 ; Benth. FI. 
Austr. iii. 322. Stems rather slender, but extending sometimes to a great length, 
glabrous or sparingly scabrous. Leaves on long petioles, from broadly ovate- 
cordate to almost reniform, usually acutely 3-angled or palmately lobed, the 
central angle or lobe the longest, of a thin texture and often 3 to 4in. long or 
more. Male and female flowers often in the same axil, the males in a short 
raceme on a long peduncle, the females in a small dense cluster on a very short 
peduncle. Calyx in the males scarcely above 1 line diameter and the corolla 
rarely 3 lines, the females still smaller. Fruits ovoid, rarely Jin. long, densely 
covered with barbed prickles. — Hook. f. FI. Tasm. i. 143 ; S.fretensis, Hook. f. in 
Hook. Lond. Journ. vi. 473; .S', australis, Endl. Prod. FI. Norf. 67 ; A. Gray, 
Bot. Amer. Expl. Exped. i. 648. 
Hab.: Moreton Bay, V. v. Mueller. 
A common weed in tropical and N America, widely dispersed over the Pacific Isles and New 
Zealand, but not recorded from Asia or Africa. — Benth. 
A. Gray distinguishes .S'. australis from the common American form chiefly by its smaller 
flowers. It is not easy to judge of this from dried specimens without soaking, and the size 
appears variable, but certainly in some Australian specimens quite as large as in the common 
American forms. — Benth. 
15. ALSOMITRA, Benth. et Hook., Gen. PI. i. 840. 
Calyx in the males rotate, 5-parted, segments oblong or oblong-lanceolate. 
Corolla rotate, 5-parted, segments obtuse. Stamens 5, filaments short, near 
together at the base ; anthers small, oblong, at length recurved, 1-celled; ovary 
rudimentary. Female, with the calyx and corolla as in the male; ovary elongate- 
clavato, 1-celled ; styles 3 or 4, conical, fleshy, with semilunate stigmas; ovules 
very many, pendulous ; placentas 3, thick, vertical, parietal. Fruit large, 
