MOMORDICA ELATERIUM. 
SPIRTING CUCUMBER. 
Order. 
MONADELPHIA. 
Natural Order. 
cucurbitacea:. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
S. Europe. 
4 feet. 
June, July. 
Perennial. 
in 1548. 
No. 527. 
The name, Momordica, is supposed to have been 
derived from mordeo, to bite, the seeds having the 
appearance of being bitten. Elaterium, according 
to modern authors, is from the Greek, elater, a dri- 
ver, in allusion to the peculiar action of the elastic 
seed vessels of the plant under notice. This, how- 
ever, does not appear to be the origin, or at least, 
the application, of the word, since it was applied, 
by Hippocrates, as a name, to drastic purgatives 
generally; and is said, by Dr. Paris, to have been 
deduced from the word, elauno, to drive, or urge. 
This plant has the name of spirting cucumber, 
from a peculiarity, shown by its seed vessel, on be- 
ing picked from its footstalk. This has not, unfre- 
quently, been a source of amusement to the young 
botanist, by surprising those who are unacquainted 
with the plant. On the ripe fruit being touched, 
so as to move it but a little, it instantly discharges 
a volley of seeds and fluid, perhaps into the face of 
the unsuspecting intruder on its repose. This pecu- 
liar action has been explained, by Dutrochet, as the 
effect of endosmosis, a process which he explains in 
his theory of the motions of fluids in plants. He 
Class. 
MONCECIA. 
