diam. Seeds very numerous, compressed, wrinkled, black.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 524; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 73; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 81; Kirk, Students Fl. 182. Tetrapathæa australis, Raoul, Choix, t. 27.
North and South Islands: From the North Cape as far south as Banks Peninsula, ascending to 2500 ft. Kohia. November–January.
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 monœcious or diœcious, 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, neiirly 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 colocynth 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 mto 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.
1. SICYOS, Linn.
Climbing or prostrate herbs. Leaves angular or 3–5-lobed. Flowers small, monœcious. Male flowers racemose. Calyx-tube broadly campanulate, 5-toothed. Corolla rotate, deeply 5-partite. Stamens connate into a short column; anthers 2–5, sessile at the top of the column, sinuous; cells confluent. Female flowers capitate on a short peduncle, rarely solitary. Calyx-tube adnate with the ovary; limb and corolla as in the males. Ovary 1-celled; style short, 3-fid; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit small, coriaceous, dry, indehiscent, covered with barbed spines.
A small genus of about 20 species, mainly from tropical America, but extending to Australia and the Pacific islands. The single New Zealand species has the range of the genus.
