366 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
nodes very long, 18 em. or less; leaf blades irregularly ovate, 85 mm. long and 
37 mm. wide or less, rather thin, obtuse or broadly rounded at the apex, semi- 
cordate or rounded at the base, more or less puberulent on both surfaces, except 
the oldest blades, which are sometimes quite glabrous; petioles about one-third 
as long as the blades, villous; inflorescence slender, few-flowered, the separate 
flowers almost sessile; bracts 5 or 6 mm. long, lanceolate or narrowly triangu- 
lar, the free portion rather longer than the tube; perianth about 8 mm. long; 
fruits subelliptical, narrowed at both ends, brown marked with transverse darker 
inarks. 
Type U. S. National Herbarium (no. 212108), collected in Sabino Canyon, 
Arizona, 1892, Toumey 471c. The plant is distinguished by its villous pubes- 
cence and slender stems. 
Other specimens examined: 
ARIZONA: Tempe, 1896, Towmey, not as villous as the type; Arizona, 1876, 
Palmer, 644, not typical, but with the villous pubescence; Hardyville, 
1868, C. A. Almondinger, 
CALIFORNIA: Colton, 1881, Vasey, placed here because of its pubescence; 
San Felipe Creek below Bonner, 1900, Brandegee. 
New Mexico: No locality, 1881, Vasey. 
The label states that the last-cited plant is from New Mexico, but it is prob- 
ably incorrect. No specimen of any species of the genus has been found in 
New Mexico at any other time so far as the author is able to learn, 
Here probably belongs Mirabilis bigelovii A, Gray. See page 369, 
9. MIRABILIS L. 
Mirabilis lL. Sp. Pl. 1: 177. 1753. 
Nyctago Juss. Gen, 90. 1789. 
Perennial herbs, glabrous or pubescent, with large, thickened roots; leaves 
opposite, their blades entire, petioled or sessile; flowers solitary in a gamophyl- 
lous, 5-lobed, calyx-like involucre; perianth colored, corolla-like, showy, with 
a long slender tube and a broadly spreading limb; stamens mostly 5, unequal, 
with slender, filiform filaments which are united at the base; fruit leathery, 
obscurely 5-angled or 5-ribbed, narrowed to the base, smooth or somewhat 
tuberculate, glabrous or pubescent. _ 
Type species, Mirabilis jalapa 1. 
A number of species have been described besides those mentioned here, most 
of them coming from Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. 
KEY TO THE SPECIES, 
Stamens long-exserted, twice as long as the perianth; perianth 
white, tinged with pink; lobes of the involucre obtuse______ 1. M. exserta, 
Stamens exserted, but considerably less than twice as long as 
the perianth; lobes of the involucre mostly acute. 
Perianth 8 to 5 cm. long, red, yellow, or rarely white; 
tube funnelform_ ~~ ~~-~----- 2. MW. jalapa, 
Perianth 10 to 15 em. long, white; tube long-tubular. 
Stems densely glandular above; leaves glandular on 
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5 ne > AL. longiflora. 
Stems almost glabrous above, not glandular; leaves 
glabrous, all of them petioled, although the upper 
petioles may be very short; tube of the perianth 
more slender 
_— 
. JL. wrightiana. 
