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CUCURBITACEAE
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CUCURBITACEAE , a botanical See also:order of See also:dicotyledons, containing 87 genera and about 65o See also:species, found in the temperate and warmer parts of the See also:earth but especially See also:developed in the tropics. The See also:plants are generally See also:annual herbs, climbing by means of tendrils and having a rapid growth. The See also:long-stalked leaves are arranged alternately, and are generally palmately lobed and veined. The See also:flowers or inflorescences are See also:borne in the See also:leaf-axils, in which a vegetative bud is also found, and at the See also:side of the leaf-stalk is a See also:simple or branched tendril. ' There has been much difference of See also:opinion as to what member or members the tendril represents; the one which seems most in accordance with facts regards the tendril as a shoot, the See also:lower portion representing the See also:stem, the upper See also:twining portion a leaf. The flowers are unisexual, and strikingly epigynous, the perianth and stamens being attached to a See also:bell-shaped prolongation of the receptacle above the ovary. The five narrow pointed sepals are followed by five petals which are generally See also:united to See also:form a more or less bell-shaped corolla. There are five stamens in the male flowers; the anthers open towards the outside, are 1, Male See also:flower of See also:cucumber 4, See also:Female flower. (Cucumis). 5, See also:Horizontal See also:plan of male flower. 2, Same, in See also:vertical See also:section, 6, Transverse section of See also:fruit. slightly enlarged. 3, Stamens, after removal of calyx and corolla. one-celled, with the See also:pollen-sacs generally curved and variously united. The carpels, normally three in number, form an ovary with three thick, fleshy, bifid placentas bearing a large number of ovules on each side, and generally filling the interior of the ovary with a juicy See also:mass. The See also:short thick See also:style has generally three branches each bearing a fleshy, usually forked stigma. The fruit is a fleshy many-seeded See also:berry with a tough rind (known as a pepo), and often attains considerable See also:size. The embryo completely fills the See also:seed. The order is represented in See also:Britain by bryony (Bryonia dioica), (fig. I) a hedge-climber, perennial by means of large fleshy tubers which send up each See also:year a number of slender angular stems. The leaves are See also:heart-shaped with wavy margined lobes. The flowers are greenish, i to } in. in See also:diameter; the fruit, a red several-seeded berry, is about in. in diameter. Many genera are of economic importance; Cucumis (fig. 2) affords cucumber (q.v.) and See also:melon (q.v.); Cucurbita, See also:pumpkin and marrow; Citrullus vulgaris is See also:water-melon, and C. Colocynthis, See also:colocynth; Ecballium See also:Elaterium (squirting cucumber) is medicinal; Sechium edule (chocho), a tropical See also:American species, is largely cultivated for its edible fruit; it contains one large seed which germinates in situ. Lagenaria is the See also:gourd (q.v.). The fruits of Lu$a aegyptiaca have a number of closely netted vascular bundles in the pericarp, forming a See also:kind of loose See also:felt which supplies the well-known loofah or See also:bath-sponge. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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