Zehneria
(named in memory of Joseph Zehner, a botanical artist of Vienna). SYN. Pilogyne. ORD. Cucurbitaceae. A genus embracing about fifteen species of stove or greenhouse, prostrate or climbing herbs, with perennial roots; one is found in Norfolk Island, another in Peru, and the rest inhabit tropical and South Africa and Asia. Flowers small, dioecious, rarely monoecious; males fascicled, racemose, or corymbose, with three, rarely four or five, stamens; females solitary, fascicled, or corymbose, with three rudimentary stamens; calyx minutely five-toothed or five-lobed; corolla rotate, five-parted. Fruit small, baccate, shortly pedunculate. Leaves angularly toothed or lobed, often membranous. Tendrils simple. Only two species have been introduced. For culture, see Gourds.
Z. hastata (halbert-shaped). l. very ornamental, of a firm texture, lively green in colour, the veins being bordered with silvery-white, ovate, sub-orbicular, oblong, or narrow-lanceolate, glabrous or rarely slightly scabrous below, usually acute or acuminate at apex. Java, 1866. A handsome, tuberous-rooted climber. Its proper name is now Melothria heterophylla. Z. suavis (soft). l. white-dotted and scabrous above, pilose, shortly hirsute, or scabrous beneath, cordate-ovate, angular or somewhat three to five-lobed, emarginate at base, the margins slightly and remotely denticulate. South Africa. Greenhouse. Melothria punctata is now the correct name of this plant.