(the bitter gourd), is the fruit of a cucurbitaceous plant, the Cucumis Colocynthis. The plant is extremely common in Palestine, Asia, Africa, &c., and its trailing stems often cover the desert spots for miles. The fruit is about the size and shape of a large orange; with a thin, leathery, yellowish rind; and a dry, cellular interior, containing many seeds, from which a coarse oil is expressed. The dry pith is the part used in medicine: it is intensely bitter, and is one of the most powerful purgatives we possess. This fruit, however, is chiefly interesting to the general reader, as being supposed to be the palkyoth or wild gourds mentioned in the Second Book of Kings, which the prophet's servant shrewd into the pot of pottage, mistaking them for one of the eatable gourds or cucumbers. The original word is used to denote an oval fruit; and hence it is not quite certain whether the wild gourds were the fruit of the colocynth or of the squirting cucumber (*Momordica Elaterium*), both of which are equally bitter and poisonous. The colocynth could only be shred in its young state, when it is oval in form and full of juice. Under these circumstances, both the colocynth and the fruit of the squirting cucumber might easily be mistaken for young gherkins. See *Botany*, vol. v., p. 192.