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CUCURBITACEAE
8. Cucumis melo var. egreslis Naud. in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser 4, II: 73. 1859. (Fig. 166).
Cucumis chate Linn.—Cucumis pubescens Willd.—Cucumis maderaspatanus Moon—Cucumis
melo var. pubescens Kurz -Cucumis cicatrisatus Stocks.
Sinh. Hen-Kekiri.
An annual, tendril climber with long, bluntly angular stems, rough with hooked prickly
hairs on ridges, tendrils simple; leaves simple, alternate, 7.5—11.2 cm long, broadly cordate—
ovate with the basal lobes rounded, usually shallowly cut into 3 or 5 acute lobes, slightly dentate,
very roughly hairy on both sides; petioles stout, often as long as the leaves, deeply sulcatc above,
often much twisted, very harsh with prickly hairs; flowers regular, yellow, unisexual,
monoecious, small, male flowers in small clusters, female flowers solitary, 1.8 cm wide; sepals
5, fused into a campanulate calyx, very hairy, segments setaceous; petals 5, connate at base
about J way up, rounded; male flowers: stamens 3, filaments very short, anthers small, connate,
connective produced into a long appendage; female flowers: calyx-tube constricted above the
ovary, ovary ovoid with scattered, bulbous-based, bristly, deciduous hairs, style short, slender,
stigmas very large; fruit ovoid-globose, slightly trigonous in section, small, glabrous, obscurely
striped with dark and light green, solid, fleshy; seeds numerous, horizontal, narrowly ovoid,
compressed and smooth.
Flowers during August and September.
Illustrations. Wight, Ic. PI. Ind. Orient, pi. 496. 1840—43; Herb. Peradeniya, drawing.
Distribution. Occurs in India, Malaya and Ceylon. It is common in waste ground in
the low-country in Ceylon.
Ceylon. Central Prov., Ambagamuwa, Thwaites CP 3534; Giriyagama, Siyambalagoda
Estate, Alston 2116, Aug. 1927.
Uses. The juice of the fruit after being impregnated with impure carbonate of potash
and steamed in hot ash, is used as a diuretic for cases of difficulty in passing urine and other
urinary complaints. The fruit of the cultivated form is cooked and eaten as a vegetable
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