FLORA OF ADEN. 
205 
of which I have examined his original specimen in the British Museum : 
it does not, however, bear the name Fissenia , but Kissenia , in honour 
of its discoverer, M. Kissen, a traveller in Arabia. Endlicher, who is 
responsible for the spelling Fissenia , probably obtained the generic name 
for the South African species, orally, from R. Brown ” (Florula 
Adenensis, p. 42.) 
XXII.— CUCURBITACE^. 
Usually climbing perennial-rooted herbs. Leaves alternate, simple 
or compound, exstipulate ; tendrils lateral, solitary, simple or 2 —8-fid. 
Inflorescence various, axillary. Flowers unisexual. Calyx-tube 
adnate to the ovary ; lobes 5, rarely 3 or 6, imbricate. Petals 5, rarely 
3 or 6, free or connate, often confluent with the calyx-tube. 
Anthers extrorse, free or connate, simple or 2 — 3-fid ; cells straight, 
curved, conduplicate or contorted ; connective sometimes produced 
beyond the cells. Ovary inferior or rarely free at the apex only, usually 
3-carpellary ; ovules usually many and horizontal in most genera. 
Fruit usually a succulent or hard indehiscent many-seeded berry, 
rarely dehiscing by valves or bursting irregularly. Seeds of various 
forms, often imbedded in pulp or fibre ; testa coriaceous or 
crustaceous ; no albumen. 
Sjpecies about 600. 
Distribution : — Warmer parts of the globe, especially in the Tropics. 
Corolla 5-par tite to the base or 5-petalous, 
Connective produced beyond the cells . . . . 1 . Cucumis. 
Connective not produced beyond the cells . . . .2. Citrullusj 
Corolla campanulate, divided to the middle or a little below it . 3. Corallocarpus. 
1. Cucumis L. 
Annual herbs with a perennial root, climbing or trailing, hispid or 
scabrid. Leaves entire, lobed, palmate or pedate. Tendrils simple, 
sometimes spinescent. 
Flowers yellow, usually monoecious. Male flowers : Fascicled or 
solitary. Calyx-tube short, subulate. Corolla subcampanulate, deeply 5- 
lobed or -partite. Stamens 3, free ; filaments short ; anthers free, oblong, 
one 1-celled, two 2-celled ; cells various ; connective produced into a 
papillose appendage. Rudiment of ovary glandular. Female flowers : 
Solitary. Staminodes 0 or subulate or reduced to glands. Calyx and 
corolla as in the male. Ovary ovoid or globose ; ovules oo, on 3 or 5 
placentas ; style short j stigmas 3, obtuse. 
