a. Bot. [f. mod.L. Cucurbitaceæ, f. cucurbita: see -ACEOUS.] Belonging to the Natural Order Cucurbitaceæ, comprising trailing or climbing plants with fleshy fruits, as the Gourd, Cucumber, Melon, etc.
1853. Th. Ross, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., III. xxvi. 114. This air, at once hot and humid … nourishes those vegetable reservoirs, the cucurbitaceous plants.
1880. C. & F. Darwin, Movem. Pl., 104. One Cucurbitaceous genus.
