Part 137. The gourd family (Cucurbitaceae). Examples: pumpkin (Figs. 80 1-81 I), squashes (Figs. 81 II-84), cucumber (Figs. 85-87), muskmelon (Figs. 102, 103), watermelon (Figs. 104, 105), sponge cucumber (Fig. 225), and bottle-gourd (Fig. 265).

See pages 418, 419 for the formulas of Cucurbita, Cucumis, Citrullus, Lagenaria, Luffa, and Cucurbitaceae.

Most of the gourd family have the androecium so curiously developed as to be quite variously understood by different botanists. According to the view now most generally adopted there are typically five stamens. In some members of the family (not among the above examples), all five stamens are free, but usually four of them coalesce more or less completely in pairs, forming, as we may say, two double stamens leaving an odd one distinct. In such cases the flowers appear to have but three stamens. Along with this coalescence there goes an extraordinary elongation and bending 1 of the pollen-sacs as shown in Fig. 80 III. In some genera, as for example squashes, etc. (Cucurbita), there is a complete coalescence of all the anthers, which are then said to be syngenesious.2

1 This bending is expressed in the formulas by FA v .

2 Syn"gen-e'sious - Gr. syn, together; genesis, generation. Such coalescence is symbolized by a small parenthesis placed after the stamen number and above.

In this genus and most other members of the family, three, much thickened, wedge-shaped, parietal placentae almost completely fill the ovary, and bear on their recurved margins an indefinite number of ovules. The seeds as they ripen are imbedded in a soft pulp formed of the placentae. Around this pulp, in the mature fruit, is a hard rind composed of the ripened ovary wall and the adhering torus. Such a fruit is called a pepo.3

3 Pe'po - L. pepo, a pumpkin. TC!j -.

The family is made up mostly of herbaceous vines with watery juice; flowers solitary or loosely clustered, imperfect, regular, gamopetalous or choripetalous; stamens five, often appearing as three through coalescence, and sometimes syngenesious, the pollen-sacs often elongated and bent; ovary inferior with three parietal placentce, fruit usually a pepo.