N. O. OUOURBITACE.E. 
589 
Petiole without glands, 3-4in. Flowers large, yellow, monmcious, 
all solitary; without bracts. Male flowers: — Peduncle 3-4in. 
Calyx-tube campanulate, lobes 5, when young often narrow ; 
leaflike, scarcely serrate. Corolla of 5 petals nearly separate ; 
stamens 3, inserted near the mouth of the tube, anthers exsert, 
free, one 1-celled, two 2-celled, cells sigmoid. Female flowers: — 
peduncle l-2in., Calyx and Corolla as in the male ; ovary 
oblong, densely hairy ; style thick, with 3 flexuous stigmas ; 
ovules numerous, horizontal, placentas 3. Fruit green, 
1-l^ft , often 2ft. by £ft., cylindric, fleshy, oblong, pubescent, 
indehiscent, without ribs, ultimately covered with a white 
waxy bloom. Seeds many, oblong, compressed, margined, § 
by iin. 
Uses : — The fruit possesses alterative and styptic properties, 
and is popularly known as a valuable antimercurial. It is also 
said to have cooling properties. It is considered tonic, nutritive 
and diuretic, and a specific for Inemoptysis and other hemorrh- 
ages from internal organs. The fresh juice from the fruit given 
internally, while a slice of the fruit is at the same time applied 
to the temples, is said to be an efficacious cure for internal 
hemorrhage. According to the Sanskrit authors, it is useful 
in insanity, epilepsy, and other nervous diseases ; the fresh 
juice is given either with sugar or as an adjunct to other 
medicines for these diseases (U C. Dutt). 
Is used extensively as a preserve by natives. 
“ The seeds possess anthelmintic properties, and are useful 
in cases of tienia. The expressed oil of the seeds, in doses of 
half an ounce, repeated once or twice at an interval of two 
hours, and followed by an aperient, is said to be equally effica- 
cious. May be used as a substitute for male fern” (Official 
Correspondence from Bombay Committee regarding the revision 
of Indian Pharmacopoeia.) 
“ The fresh juice is often used as a vehicle to administer 
pearl shell for the cure of phthisis in the first stage” (Asst.- 
Surgn. Sakharam Arjun, Bombay). “This is so universally 
believed to be useful in pulmonary consumption that some 
