Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/301

 TENDEILS IN SOME CUCUKBITACEAE. 259

MOMORDICA ECHINATA.

Both simple and branched two-armed tendrils are found on the same plant. The disposition of the nodal organs is as in Citrullus vulgaris except that the leaf-like appendage is absent.

The stem and the petiole show the usual structure, the latter with only seven vascular bundles.

The base of the tendril, both in branched and unbranched speci- mens is four-Iobed and has four bundles only. The arms in the case of the branched tendrils, and the upper portion of the tendril in the case of the simple ones, possess a dorsiventral outline showing a dis tinct ventral groove and five bundles arranged in a horse-shoe manner.

The vascular connections are like those of Luffa acutangula and the rest, already described or to be described later.

Tendrils are all simple. To the right of the tendril at the node is a vegetative bud and next to this a flower. The glandular organ is absent.

The stem and the petiole has the usual structure.

The base of the tendril is four-lobed as in Momordica echinata. Ik has four bundles. One of them divides into two a little higher up and the tendril at the same time develops a groove, thus becoming petiole-like in its organisation.

The bundles of the tendril anastomose with the bundles of the inner ring of the stem.

CUCURBITA MAXIMA.

The tendrils in this species are four or five-armed. The vascular connections of the leaf-traces and the tendril-traces are the same as described for Benincasa cerifera.

It will be seen from what has been described before that or of the twelve species examined, four, i.e., Gucumis melo, Cucumis momordica, Trichosanthes dioica and Momordica charantia, have simple tendrils ; Momordica echinata has both simple and branched tendrils ; while all the rest, have branched tendrils.

The vascular connections of the stem with the tendril, the flower, the vegetative bud and the leaf have been examined in all except Citrullus vulgaris. The structure of the leaf-stalk and the tendrils at various levels has been examined in all except Cucurbitq maxima.