Flowers polygamous or monœcious; the sterile campanulate, the corolla 5-lobed; the fertile with the calyx-tube constricted above the ovary, then campanulate. Anthers more or less united. Berry small, pulpy, filled with many flat and horizontal seeds.--Tendrils simple. Flowers very small. (Altered from μήλωθρον, an ancient name for a sort of white grape.) 1. M. péndula, L. Slender, from a perennial root, climbing; leaves small, roundish and heart-shaped, 5-angled or lobed, roughish; sterile flowers few in small racemes; the fertile solitary, greenish or yellowish; berry oval, green, 4--6´´ long.--Copses, Va. to Fla., west to S. Ind. and La. 5. CUCÚRBITA, L. Flowers monœcious, mostly solitary. Calyx-tube campanulate; corolla campanulate, 5-lobed to the middle. Filaments distinct; anthers linear, united, sigmoid. Ovary oblong, with short thick style, 3--5 2-lobed stigmas, and 3--5 parietal placentas; ovules numerous, horizontal. Fruit smooth, fleshy with a hard rind, indehiscent.--Prostrate scabrous vines, rooting at the joints, with large yellow flowers and large fruit. (The Latin name for the Gourd.) 1. C. fœtidíssima, HBK. Root very large, fusiform; leaves thick, triangular-cordate; flowers 3--4´ long; fruit globose or obovoid, 2--3´ in diameter. (C. perennis, _Gray_.)--Central Neb. to Tex., and westward. ORDER 46. CACTÀCEÆ. (CACTUS FAMILY.) _Fleshy and thickened mostly leafless plants, of peculiar aspect, globular or columnar and many-angled, or flattened and jointed, usually with prickles. Flowers solitary, sessile; the sepals and petals numerous, imbricated_ in several rows, the bases adherent to the 1-celled ovary.--Stamens numerous, with long and slender filaments, inserted on the inside of the tube or cup formed by the union of the sepals and petals. Style 1; stigmas numerous. Fruit a 1-celled berry, with numerous campylotropous seeds on several parietal placentæ. 1. Mamillaria. Globose or oval plants, covered with spine-bearing tubercles. Flowers from between the tubercles. Ovary naked; berry succulent. 2. Opuntia. Branching or jointed plants; the joints flattened or cylindrical. 1. MAMILLÀRIA. Haw. Flowers about as long as wide, the tube campanulate or funnel-shaped. Ovary often hidden between the bases of the tubercles, naked, the succulent berry exserted. Seeds yellowish-brown to black, crustaceous.--Globose or oval plants, covered with spine-bearing cylindrical, oval, or conical tubercles, the flowers from distinct woolly or bristly areoles at their base. (Name from _mamilla_, a nipple, referring to the tubercles.) 1. M. vivípara, Haw. Simple or cespitose, 1--5´ high, the almost terete tubercles bearing bundles of 5--8 reddish-brown spines (10´´ long or less), surrounded by 15--20 grayish ones in a single series, all straight and very rigid; flowers purple, with lance-subulate petals and fringed sepals; berry oval, green; seeds pitted, light brown.--Plains of Dak. to Kan., and westward.