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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

[Introduction to Order XXXI. CucurbitaceÆ.]

Climbing or prostrate herbs. Leaves alternate, exstipulate,. usually palmately veined or lobed. Tendrils generally present, springing from the sides of the stem near the petioles, simple or divided. Flowers monæcious or diæcious, solitary or in racemes or panicles. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary; limb campanulate or rotate or tubular, 3–5-lobed; lobes imbricate. Petals 3–5, inserted on the calyx-limb, free or united into a lobed corolla, often confluent with the calyx below. Stamens 3 or 5, inserted on the calyx-tube; filaments free or connate into a tube or column;. anthers free or united, one 1-celled, the others 2-celled; cells often long and sinuous. Ovary inferior, usually 1-celled when very young, with 3 (rarely 4–5) parietal placentas, which thicken and turn inwards, meeting in the axis, so that the ovary becomes spuriously 3–6-celled; style simple, entire or 3-fid; ovules 1 or more to each placenta. Fruit succulent or coriaceous, indehiscent or bursting irregularly. Seeds usually many, generally flat; albumen wanting; embryo straight, cotyledons large.

A natural and well-defined order, spread over the tropics and warmer portions of the temperate zones, nearly absent in cold climates. Genera about 70; species nearly 500. The order is mainly important on account of the edible fruits which many species produce, as the pumpkin, melon, water-melon, cucumber, &c. Others are acrid and purgative, as coloeynth and bryony, and are used in medicine. The common gourd {Lagenaria vulgaris), the hard-rinded fruit of which is so extensively used in the tropics for water-vessels, &c, was-introduced into New Zealand by the Maoris, and cultivated by them long before the advent of Europeans, but is now seldom seen. The sole indigenous genus. (Sicyos) occurs in America, the Pacific islands, and Australasia.