Thladiantha
(from thladias, compressed, and anthe, a flower; owing, it is said, to the plant being first described from a pressed specimen!). ORD. Cucurbitaceae. A genus including three or four species of climbing, greenhouse or hardy herbs, natives of North China, Java, and the Himalayas. Male flowers golden, rather large, solitary or racemose; calyx tube shortly campanulate, the bottom shut by a horizontal scale, the segments five, lanceolate; corolla campanulate, five-parted, the segments revolute about half-way down; filaments five. Female flowers solitary; calyx and corolla as in the males; ovary oblong; style deeply trifid, with three reniform stigmas. Fruit green, oblong, fleshy, many-ribbed. Leaves ovate-cordate, with a deep sinus, denticulate. T. dubia, the only species introduced, will thrive in almost any soil, but perhaps succeeds best when planted against a sunny wall. T. dubia (doubtful).* fl., males approximate; calyx teeth very narrow; petals 3/4in. long; filaments minutely hairy; racemes 2in. to 3in. long, with prominent bracts; female peduncle 2in. to 3in. long, more or less hairy, the ovary densely woolly. fr. 1 1/2in. by 3/4in., glabrous, obtuse at both ends. l. deeply cordate-ovate, acute, undivided, 4in. by 2 1/2in., denticulated, not angular, usually villous beneath; petioles 1in. to 1 1/2in. long. Hardy. India and China, 1864. (B. H. 1872, 6; B. M. 5469; in both these figures, however, the female flower and fruit belong to another species.