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Momordica (From momordi perfect of mordeo)

(from momordi, perfect of mordeo, to bite; the seeds have the appearance of being bitten). Including Neurosperma. ORD. Cucurbitaceae. A genus comprising about twenty-six species of annual or perennial, glabrous or pilose, climbing stove herbs; they are mostly natives of Africa, but a few are thinly spread over the tropical regions of the globe. Flowers white, yellow, or straw-colour, small or large, of separate sexes, both of which are borne on the same or on different plants, and have a campanulate five-lobed calyx, and five distinct petals. Fruit oblong, fusiform, or cylindrical, baccate, indehiscent or three-valved, fleshy, prickly or warted externally, bursting when ripe, generally with elastic force, into irregular valves. Leaves entire, lobed or pedate, or three to seven-foliolate. The species in cultivation are raised annually from seed, which should be sown in heat early in spring. The plants may be grown in large pots of rich soil, or be planted out in a heated structure and trained up the rafter, or on a trellis. The fruits are very ornamental after they get ripe and burst open. The species here described are probably the only ones yet introduced.

M. Balsamina (balsam-bearing). Balsam Apple. fl. yellow, with brown spots. June. fr. orange-coloured, roundish-ovate, attenuated at both ends, angular, tuberculated, splitting irregularly and laterally. l. palmately five-lobed, toothed, glabrous, shining. Australia, Tropical Asia, and Africa, 1568. An exceedingly pretty annual, well adapted for trellises, arbours, &c., in warm situations outside, and in a rich light soil. Plenty of water should be given during the growing period.

M. Charantia (Charantia).* fl. yellow. June. fr. oblong, acuminated, angular, tuberculated, copper-coloured or red, bursting open, when ripe, at the apex. l. somewhat palmately five-lobed, dentate, rather hairy. India, Malaya, China, and tropical Africa, 1710. Allied to M. Balsamina, but very distinct, and larger in all its parts. (B. M. 2455.) M. cochinchinensis (Cochin China). fl., males very large, fully 4in. in diameter; calyx deeply cut into five ovate-lanceolate lobes, striated with black; corolla patenti-campanulate, of five petals, which are pale straw-coloured externally, villous within on the disk, and copiously veined; three inner petals black-purple at base; peduncles long, single-flowered; female flowers like the males, on peduncles 1in. to 2in. long, bracts small about the middle. July. fr. red, large, oval-rotundate. l. varying in size, cordate, palmately three to five-lobed; segments sinuate-dentate; petioles long, grooved, bearing conspicuous peziza-shaped glands. Stems climbing. India, Formosa, Philippines, &c., 1820. (B. M. 5145, under name of M. mixta.) M. Elaterium (Elaterium). A synonym of Ecballium Elaterium. M. mixta (mixed). A synonym of M. cochinchinensis.