CUCURBITACE.'E. 
145 
lar : styles 3, cohering : stigmata 3, green, expanded, re- 
flected. Fruit size of an orange, globular, when ripe 
yellowish, glabrous, 3-celled : cells O-seeded : seeds ob- 
long, imbedded in pulp. 
As no part of the plant has the least bitterness to the 
taste, 1 have altered the specific designation. 
X. CUCURBITA. 
Flowers monoecious. Corolla campanulate, 
yellowish, with the petals coalescing among 
themselves and with the calyx. Calyx hemi- 
spherico-campanulate. Stamens 5, triadelphous 
and syngenesious : anthers abruptly curved at 
the base and at the apex. ? Calyx obovato- 
clavate, contracted at the throat, and there cir- 
cumcised after flowering. Anthers frequently 
sterile. Stigmata 3, incrassated, bilobed. Pepo 
3-5-celled : seeds ovato-compressed, slightly tu- 
mid at the margin. 
Name from the Latin. 
1. Cucurbita maxima. Red Gourd or Pom- 
pion. 
Leaves cordate very rugose, petioles hispid, 
tube of the corolla obovate terminating in a short 
neck, fruit globose subdepressed yellow red or 
green. DC. 
II A B. Cultivated. 
F L. After rains. 
The country of which the Pompion was originally a 
native is not known. Probably it grows wild no where, 
but resembles the sugar-cane, wheat, and many other plants 
necessary to man, which have been left to their utility, to 
give them claims for their preservation. There is no fruit 
furnishing an article of food that attains a size equal to 
this- Pompions weighing from 40 to 60 lbs are not un- 
common. In England the Pompion is not held in any es- 
timation. This may be owing to the low temperature and 
Vol. 2. k 
