Flora Medica

CUCURBITACEjE.clustered. Anthers with their connective covered by oblong ovateacute Fruit papillae. downy, smooth, tapered into a long slender stalkabove the insertion of the calyx. In the wild state this plant producespoisonous fruit. Some sailors died at one of our outports a fewyears since from drinking beer that had been standing in a flask madeof a bottle gourd. Dr. Royle says that he learned from a very respectableand intelligent native doctor attached to the gaol hospitalat Saharumporethat he had seen a case of poisoning from eating of thebitter pulp, in which the symptoms were those of cholera.CUCUMIS.Flowers monoecious. Calyx tubular-campanulate, with subulatesegments scarcely the length of the tube. Petals scarcelyadhering to each other. $ Stamens . 5, triadelphous.$ . Stigmas 3, thick, 2-parted. Fruit 3-6- celled : seeds compressed,ovate, not tumid at the edge.170. C. utilissimus Roxb.fi. ind. iii. 721. Higher cultivatedlands of Bengal.An annual. Stems exactly as in the common cucumber, but notquite so extensive. Tendrils simple. Leaves broad-cordate, generallymore or less 5-lobed ;lobes rounded, toothletted ; above pretty smooth,below scabrous, the largest generally about 6 inches each way. Floralleaves of the female flowers sessile, and very small. Male flowersaxillary, peduncled, crowded, but opening in succession. Female flowersaxillary, peduncled, solitary ; both sorts yellow, about an inch or aninch and a half in diameter. Fruit fleshy, generally a very perfect oval;when young, downy and clouded with lighterand darker green when;ripe, perfectly smooth, variegated with deeper and lighter yellow from4 ;to 6 inches long, and from 3 to 4 in diameter. The powder of thetoasted seeds is said to be a powerful diuretic, and serviceable in promotingthe passage of sand or gravel. Roxb.171. C. Colocynthis Linn, sp.pl 1435. DC. prodr.Woodv. t. 175. S. and C. iii. t. 1 38. KoXcurov&f Diosc.Common on the sandy lands of Coromandel, in Egypt, Palestine,iii. 302.Turkey, and all the islands of the Grecian Archipelago.Stem prostrate, hispid. Leaves cordate, ovate, many-lobed, whitewith hairs beneath : the lobes obtuse ; petioles as long as the lamina.Tendrils short. Flowers axillary, solitary stalked ; females, with thetube of the calyx globose, and somewhat hispid, the limb campanulatewith narrow segments. Petals small. Fruit globose, smooth, size ofan orange, yellow when ripe, with a thin solid rind, and a very bitterflesh. The fruit contains the intensely bitter resinoid called Colocynthin;it is very acrid, and a considerable number of severe cases ofpoisoning have occurred in the human subject. Nevertheless in combinationwith other substances, the extract is one of the commonest ofcathartics.172. C. Hardwickii Royle Illustr. 220. t. 47. f. 3. a.Foot of the Himalaya, and called " "Puharee indrayun or hillcolocynth.84