Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 2.djvu/63

Rh Curiously enough it is said that the juice of the root is strongly cathartic, and is often employed as such, while the young shoots are so free from the property that, they are used as a pot -herb and said greatly to resemble asparagus in flavour. The purgative properties of the root have been long known and in the opinion of some modern writers have fallen into unmerited neglect, as being fully equal in power, even when dried and powdered, to Jalap and when recent much more so. But of all those yet. mentioned none approach the Elaterium in the concentrated virulence of this quality ; a few grains of the pulp being known occasionally to bring on symptoms of poisoning, and a case is recorded by Dr. Christison where a person after carrying a specimen in his hat was attacked with headache succeeded by colic pains and frequent bilious vomiting and purging.

Such being the predominating quality of the family, it is well to be cautious in the use of even the best known — many however are in use as pot herbs, among these may be mentioned with just encomiums the red gourd Cucurbita maxima (C. nispeda Ainslie) the flesh of which when boiled somewhat resembles in taste a fine tender carrot. The water melon Cucurbita citrullus so highly esteemed for the cool refreshing juice of its large fruit. The white gourd ( Benincasa cerifera or Cucurbita pepo) which Ainslie informs us (under Cucurbita hispida) is presented at every native marriage feast, being supposed to ensure prosperity to the wedded pair. The vegetable marrow ( Cucumis ovifera) justly esteemed one of our finest culinary vegetables ; and a few others.

All the numerous cultivated varieties of the melon and cucumber are known to be wholesome. Some, if not all the Indian species of Momordica, seem equally safe. The fruit of several species of Trichosanthes especially, those of T. anguina are in daily use, even among Europeans, dressed in curries ; but those of T. palmata are not used and are considered poisonous by the natives. Those of our Cocoinia indica, {Momordica monadelpha, Roxb.) so common in every hedge, is eat by the natives in their curries and when fully ripe, (quite red and pulpy) seem to afford a favourite repast to many birds. Notwithstanding the drawbacks mentioned above, this is certainly a most useful family of plants, owing to the great size of their fruit and the large quantity of nutritious matter which the edible sorts afford, and which, on that account, are largely cultivated in every part of India. Those unfit for food, supply many useful medicines, but even the best known, ought to be used cautiously when not ameliorated in their qualities by cultivation.

This being a family not yet well understood, the limits of the genera are consequently imperfectly determined, whence, in the opinion of some Botanists, several very unsuitable combinations of species are met with among them. This seems probable enough, but is an error not easily avoided in families so natural, unless we are very careful in the selection of our characters, and attentive not to introduce anything extraneous, by the employment of characters derived from organs apt to vary in their forms, for, while they appear to give greater precision, they actually weaken the definition, or may even render it altogether useless. M. Serenge for example (D.C. Prod.) employs the relative size and shape of the calyx segments as generic characters, parts in themselves liable to vary, even in the same species, both in size and shape, therefore quite unfit to enter into a generic character, and when so employed are liable either to mislead or to constitute very artificial genera, and, what I consider still more objectionable, he constitutes one genus on account of its male flowers being furnished with a large bractea, but excludes from it Trichosanthes palmata, the bracteæ of which are equally conspicuous.

The order is divided into two tribes of very unequal magnitude, the one, Nhandirobeae, containing only two genera and very few species, the other Cucurbileae, to which Meisner assigns 35, but which are reduced by Endlicher to 28 genera.

The first of these tribes Nhandirobeae, has by Endlicher been raised to the rank of an order. Whether in this view, he is correct I am unable to say, as I have, not a female flower wherewith to examine the ovary, on the structure of which, as compared with that of true Cucurbitareae, the decision of the question must mainly depend. If the carpels are similarly inverted in both, which the section of the fruit in the accompanying figure seems to indicate, then, I think it may very well be retained in its present position or at most removed as a sub-