Botanical Description.--A vine with square, glabrous stem. Leaves alternate, cordate, 3-5-lobulate, dentate, rough, 5-7-nerved. Petioles short. Flowers monoecious. Staminate in axillary panicles; calyx bell-shaped; corolla yellow, 5 oval petals, borders entire; stamens 3; filaments short; two thick ones divide high up in 2 parts, thus giving the appearance of 5 stamens in all. Pistillate axillary, calyx adherent, 5 pointed sepals; corolla, 5 nearly triangular petals, finely dentate; style thick, short, the base encircled by 3 glandules; stigma cordate. Ovary, 3 pseudo-locules formed by the central union of the placentas; pluriovulate. Fruit oblong, terminating at the apex in a deciduous lid or cover, marked with 8 or 10 black longitudinal lines; the interior reticulate, 3 compartments with many seeds, oval, black, flat with thin borders. The natives do not distinguish between this specimen and the _Trichosanthes_, but it is to be noted that the corolla of the former is not ravelled or fringed. Habitat.--Common in Luzon and Panay. Blooms in January. _Momordica balsamina_, L. Nom. Vulg.--_Ampalaya_, _Ampalea_, Tag.; _Amargoso_, Sp.-Fil.; _Paria_, Iloc.; _Apalia_, Pam.; _Balsamina_, Sp.; _Balsam Apple_, Eng. _M. charanta_, L. (_M. muricata_, Willd.; _M. cylindrica_, Blanco.) Nom. Vulg.--The same as of _M. balsamina_. Uses.--The fruit of both varieties is edible, though a bitter principle gives it such an intensely bitter taste that it is intolerable to the unaccustomed palate. It is eaten raw as a salad, or cooked with meat or fish. The juice of the leaves is prescribed internally as a purgative and anthelmintic. In Concan it is given alone or combined with aromatics, in bilious disorders as an emetic and purgative; externally they use it as an ointment for the itch and other skin diseases; in India it is mixed with cinnamon, pepper, rice and oil of _Hydnocarpus inebrians_, Vahl. The fruit and leaves are used internally for worms and externally for leprosy. Some Hindoo writers state that the fruit is tonic and stomachic, and that it is useful in rheumatism, gout, diseases of the liver and spleen. Botanical Description.--The first variety, _M. balsamina_, more common than the second, is a vine with angular stem and simple tendrils. Leaves, many serrate lobules with white dots on the ends. Flowers yellow, monoecious. Staminate solitary, peduncles very long, involucre cordate; calyx 5-lobed; corolla 5 petals; filaments simple, one separate, 2 approximated; anthers joined at their bases. Pistillate solitary; ovary, 3 locules and numerous ovules; stigma, 3 bifid divisions; fruit globose, narrowing at the ends, covered with tubercles; seeds numerous, lacking albumen, having red aril.