MOUCECIA 
158 
ORDER X. SYNQENESIA. 
(confederate males.) 
Stamina united at the top. 
N° 
Genera. 
N° o f 
Growth, species. 
Native of 
Calyx jive-cieft , or five-toothed. 
85 Bryonia* h 11 
86 Cucumisf h 13 
87 Cucurbita. h 7 
88 MomordicaJ h 8 
'89 Sicyos h 3 
90 Tricosanthes h 4 
Africa, Crete 
Africa, Jamaica 
America 
India, America 
Canada 
China 
Species in 
Britain. 
Brit. 1 
ORDER XL GYNANDRIA. 
(feminine males.) 
The stamina growing on a sort of style, or imperfect pistittum « 
Calyx jive-leaved. 
91 Andrachne h 2 Italy 
Calyx six-leaved. 
92 Agyneia s 2 China 
* The young tops of white bryony (bryonia alba) may be boiled and eaten as 
hop tops, or asparagus. See note to arctium . 
f The drug coloquintida , or colocinth , is the pulp of a species of cucumis, called 
cucumis colocynthes* 
J Momordica elaterium (spurting cucumber) receives its English name from 
being of the shape of a cucumber, but less. Like many other plants it is endued 
with a remarkable elastic force for the dispersion of the seed, which force, in some 
plants, is resident in the calyx, as in oates, and many of the ferns, &c.; in others, 
in the pappus (down), as in centaur ea, crupina 9 &c.; and in others, in the capsule 
or pericarpium, as in nombrdica elaterium , which, when ripe, by touching the stalk 
near, the capsule, or raising up the capsule so as to disturb the end of the stalk, it 
is immediately detached a little within the capsule, and, in a surprising manner, 
the seeds and part of the juice are thrown out to a considerable distance with great 
violence: which seems to be owing to the elasticity of confined air; which, as 
Virgil says, “ Qua data porta , ruit ” See note to impatiens , and to the semina 
of plants 
