208 
FLORA OF ADEN. 
Cucumis colocynthis L. Sp. Pl. ed. I, p. 1011; DC. Prodr. Ill, 
302; Cogn. in DC. Monogr. Phan. Ill, 510. 
English name : — Colocynth. 
Arabic name : — Handhal gehed ; (dohn el-handhal= oil of C.). 
Description : — A monoecious, root-perennial herb ; stems diffuse 
or creeping, angled, hirsute or scabrid. Tendrils simple or bifid. 
Leaves triangular-ovate in outline, 2 — 4? inches long, 7-lobed, or 3- 
lobed with the middle lobe ovate, the lobes pinnatifid or sinuate- 
lobulate, very scabrid on both surfaces. 
Male flowers : Peduncles villous. Calyx campanulate, hairy, 
-A- inch long ; teeth lanceolate, y 1 ^ inch long. Corolla pale yellow, 
segments obovate, apiculate. Female flowers : Ovary ellipsoid, villous. 
Fruit globose, slightly depressed, 2 — 3 inches in diameter, variegated 
green and yellow ; pulp dry, intensely bitter. Seeds small, lenticular, 
smooth. 
Fruits : — January 1863 (Oliver and CL). 
Locality : — Goldmore Valley (Schweinf.) ; Ravine south-west of 
the Shum Shum R., sandy plain between Bir Achmed and Shaikh 
O’thman (Defl.) ; great valley between Steamer Point and town 
(Marchesetti) ; on the shore (Anders.) ; without locality (Birdw., 
Oliver and Cl., Kuntze). 
Distribution: — Spain, Canaries, Cape Verd Islands, N. Africa, 
Arabia, Palestine, Sind, Punjab, Ceylon. 
Uses : — The fruit is in size and shape much like an orange, marble- 
green on the surface and changing to yellow as ifc ripens. The 
intensely bitter taste n of the pulp is due to an amorphous yellow 
glucoside, Colocvnthin, which is found in it to the extent of about 
0*6 per cent., but not in the seeds. The fruit is a drastic purgative, 
and is used both in Native and European medicine. The yield is 
about 110 lb. compound extract to 60 lb. dried fruit. 
The seeds contain from 15 — 17 per cent, of a fixed oil which is 
said to make a useful illuminant. 
For the London market the peeled fruit is imported chiefly from 
Smyrna, Trieste, France, Spain, and more rarely from Persia. The 
unpeeled fruit is brought from Mogador. (Watt). 
“ Every part of the plant, especially the fruit, is of a very bitter 
taste, and is, therefore, employed by the Bedouins as an anthelmintic. 
Goats and Ibexes are very fond of the leaves and young plants, 
but the fruit is only eaten by donkeys. The ripe dried fruit is 
thrown into the fire and charred. Of this the Bedouins make gun- 
owder, time-fuses, and tinder/* A. Kaiser in fob Herb. Kew. 
