Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913
Ecballium
Ec·bal′li·um, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ἐκβάλλειν. See Ecbole.] (Bot.) A genus of cucurbitaceous plants consisting of the single species Ecballium agreste (or Elaterium), the squirting cucumber. Its fruit, when ripe, bursts and violently ejects its seeds, together with a mucilaginous juice, from which elaterium, a powerful cathartic medicine, is prepared.