— oa | 
OxypapHus Viscosus. Viscip UMBRELLA- 
Worv. 
Clafs and Order. 
& TRIANDRIA MoNnoGyYNIA. 
1 
Generic Charaéer. 
Cal. 5-fidus campanulatus. Cor. infundibuliformis. Nux 
1-{perma calyce explanato perfiftenti circumdata. 
Specific Characer and Synonyms, 
OXYBAPHUS vifcofus. _ L’Herit. Monograph. 
MIRABILIS vi#/co/a floribus racemofis; foliis cordatis orbicu- 
_ lato-acutis tomentofis. Cav. Icon, I. n.17. t. 19. 
§-gona 
- ~ 
The prefent is one of thofe plants which is entitled to our 
admiration, for its curious and fingular ftru€ture, rather than 
for any extraordinary figure it makes in a colle€tion; not that 
its flowers are without a certain fhare of beauty. 
It is an annual, growing to about the height of two feet; 
the whole plant is vifcous, and, if bruifed, fmells fomewhat dif- 
agreeably ; the flowers do not open at any particular time as 
~ thofe of the Mirabilis do, and each contains only three ftamina ; 
when they fall off, which they do foon after expanding, the 
_ ealyx clofes on the germen, enlarges, droops, and becomes 
deeply plaited; on the ripening of the feed it turns brown, 
expands, and is fufpended like a little umbrella over the feed, 
which when perfeétly ripe drops out on the ground; the ex- 
_ panded calyx in this ftate appears fomewhat like the flower of 
a Phyfalis. = | 
‘This plant flowers from June to O&ober, and ripens its 
feeds in the open air; it is not difficult of culture, requires the _ 
- fame treatment as other tender annuals from Peru. oe 
Our figure was drawn from a plant which flowered 1796, 
in the colleétion of the Marchionefs of Burs, and was railed 
from Peruvian feeds, fent her by Prof. Oxteca of Madrid, 
under the name of Mirabilis triandra ; Monf. CavANILLE : 
has figured and defcribed it as the Mirabilis vifcofa ; Mont. 
L’Heririzr, from a confideration of all its charaéters, bh. 
been induced to make a new genus of it, which he has calle< 
d ~ 
