Stems often as thick as a man's arm, marked with parallel rows of irregular, small warts on either side of each fissure, noduled and pointed, each joint 1½-2 or 3in. distant; giving off leaves on branches at joints only. Outer bark light-grey or brown, warts corky, peeling off easily in regular bits, often presenting the appearance of crocodile stem. Mesophloëm deep green. Tendrils 3, or 2-fid, minutely spiral. Leaves 4-8in. long, 2-6in. broad, 3-5 or even 7-lobed, palmate, membranous, bright green ; lobes acute, more or less dentate-serrate, glabrous, often scabrous with 1 or 2 small glandular discs above and on the nerves beneath ; base cordate ; nerves 3-5, petiole l-2in. long, winding or twisted, channelled, with several glands at apex, scabrous. Stipules single, small, axillary. Flowers white ; delicate, in the female, stout white in the male. Male flowers : — Racemes, drooping 6-9 in., axillary longer than the leaves, solitary, few-flowered. Peduncles sometimes paired, stout, 5-6in. long. Flowers over 2in. nearly sessile, distant, each in the axil of a very large broadly wedge-shaped, glabrous or pubescent,
lacerate persistent bract lin. or more long, often set with broad flat glands. Calyx-segments ovate, tomentose, deeply toothed or serrated, leafy, 1-1½in., bractlike petiole, rather longer than the Calyx-segments, lin., wedge shaped, with many and long filiform laciniæ. Corolla 4in. diam., hypercrateriform, having the appearance of a parasol, with its fimbriae hanging down in beautiful tapers. Petals marked yellow at base, cuneate. Filaments triadelphous. Anthers syngenseious, very anfractuous. Female flowers solitary, smaller and more delicately
fimbriated than the male, axillary ; peduncle not so stout as in the male. Calyx- teeth of the female flower less marked. Calyx-tube short. Petals, according to some, nearly destitute of fimbria. Corolla altogether much smaller than that of the male. Fruit 2-4in. diam., globose, smooth, of the size of an ordinary orange, with a blunt nipple, brilliant scarlet, crimson ; pericarp thick ; pulp greenish, seeds numerous, densely packed, each seed about ⅓-½in.
long, oblong, compressed, smooth, brownish-grey, obtuse- margined, containing a sweet oily kernel.
Parts used : — The fruit and root.
